Several former state officials and public figures met last week with the aim of launching a new political party to contest parliamentary elections in November 2025.

According to media reports, the new party will act as the voice of the Arab Tribes Union (ATU), an alliance of 30 Egyptian Bedouin tribes which was announced last May in Al-Ajra in North Sinai governorate in a ceremony attended by political, business, community and military leaders.

ATU head Ibrahim Al-Arjani, who chairs a number of businesses, including Misr Sinai Company for Industrial Development and Investment, said the new political party is being created out of a sense of national responsibility and reflects the growing role of Sinai’s Arab tribes in preserving the national security of Egypt’s borders.

Reports have emerged that the ATU’s political party will be led by Ali Abdel-Aal, speaker of Egypt’s House of Representatives between 2015 and 2020.

Former MP Atef Makhalif told reporters that the ATU, formed originally as an NGO, is seeking political party status.

“Former high-ranking state officials and ATU leaders held a preliminary meeting on 3 December to prepare for the launch of the new political party,” said Makhalif. “The meeting was attended by Al-Arjani, Abdel-Aal, former housing minister Assem Al-Gazzar, former agriculture minister Al-Sayed Al-Qusseir, former social solidarity minister Nevine Al-Qabbaj and a large number of former and current MPs.”

A second meeting has been scheduled for next week to review the legal measures necessary to announce the launch of the party and choose members of the party’s constituent assembly.

On Monday, Abdel-Aal and other former high-profile state officials said that they will soon begin laying the groundwork for the new party. “Our meeting today is a continuation of the National Dialogue’s sessions which were kicked off in April 2022 to reach a new agenda of national priorities that can achieve the interests of the Egyptian people,” said a statement, adding that “it is clear that there is no public satisfaction about Egypt’s current political life and that there is a need for reform to achieve the aspirations of citizens and create an active participation in political life, particularly as the constitution states that the multi-party system forms the basis of Egypt’s political system.”

The statement argued that “the new political party should not be labelled as either loyalist or opposition one, but its positions on government policies will be flexible, always aiming to achieve the interests of citizens.”

Ahmed Nagi Qamah, editor-in-chief of the Politics International magazine, said “Egypt’s political life suffers from stagnation as most of the existing political parties are not attractive to citizens and lack popularity.”

“In fact we need a new party that can reinvigorate political life to be vibrant and competitive,” said Qamah.

Political Parties Law 40/1977 stipulates that anyone seeking to form a new party must first submit a request to the Political Parties Committee, headed by the deputy chairman of the Court of Cassation. Party leaders are also required to collect 5,000 recommendations from citizens across a minimum of 10 governorates, with no less than 300 recommendations per governorate.

The law bans political parties from being formed on the basis of religious, ethnic, or class affiliation, and prohibits any platform that contradicts the constitution and the principles of national unity and social peace.

Former MP Ahmed Raslan said the ATU meeting on 3 December was “organisational” and focused on ATU’s future activities.

According to Makhalif, the party will espouse a nationalist, centrist ideology and “will be a nationalist force that raises the slogans of democracy, free enterprise and national unity”.

When the ATU was launched in May, its leaders asked President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi to be honorary chairman. In October, on the 51st anniversary of the 1973 October War, President Al-Sisi attended a celebration organised by the ATU.

Cairo University professor of political science Mustafa Kamel Al-Sayed said that while the forming of a new political party was a welcome development, “from what we read, the ATU will be a loyalist, pro-regime force”.

“As such, the ATU is unlikely to contribute anything new to Egypt’s political life because its philosophy, like that of most existing political parties, will be firmly pro-government.”

Agreeing with Al-Sayed, Al-Ahram political analyst Amr Al-Shobaki said that Egypt “needs an opposition force headed by politicians who have popularity on the street” far more than another loyalist party.

“More opposition political parties will lead to a vibrant political life and the expression of a diversity of opinions that can serve the nation’s interests,” added Al-Shobaki.

Al-Ahram political analyst Emad Gad argued that the ATU is based on ethnic and tribal affiliations and as such is in violation of the constitution.

ATU Spokesperson MP Mustafa Bakri refuted this argument. He stressed that the ATU is a civil society organisation regulated and governed by the NGO law and Article 200 of the constitution which bans the forming of armed militias.

The ATU’s political party is expected to be named “the Egyptian National Union”, said Bakri, and will “include former cabinet ministers, MPs, governors, businessmen, and citizens from at least 10 governorates”.

Bakri denied that the party will be a pro-government force, insisting instead that “it believes in cooperating with state authorities to preserve national security and to stand up to malicious rumours and conspiracies targeting the state.”

According to the State Information Service, there are 87 licensed political parties in Egypt. Of these, 14 hold seats in the current parliament — Mostakbal Watan with 315 seats, the People’s Republican Party with 50 seats, Wafd with 26, Homat Watan with 23, and the Islamist Nour Party with seven seats.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 12 December, 2024 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly