Egypt: The boycott blunder

The Los Angeles Times
September 13, 2010

Egypt has been governed for 29 years by President Hosni Mubarak, and a state of emergency limiting civil liberties has been in effect for that entire time. The most popular opposition party, the Muslim Brotherhood, is banned and its candidates must run as independents. Egyptian political analysts expect that the government will manipulate this fall's parliamentary elections, as it has in the past, to guarantee the ruling National Democratic Party another sweeping majority. Against this backdrop, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei has called for a boycott of the elections unless electoral reforms are implemented first. "If nobody but the national party runs, then the regime will have to give in to us," ElBaradei said. A boycott, he added on Twitter, would "unmask sham 'democracy.' Participation wld. be contrary to the national will."

With that, ElBaradei has stepped into a longstanding debate about whether participating in unfair elections allows opposition groups to push the boundaries of freedom, or whether it simply legitimizes undemocratic regimes by offering the appearance of pluralism. Egypt is hardly alone in pondering this dilemma. Iraq's Sunni parties boycotted the U.S.-backed parliamentary elections in January 2005, then decided they had made a strategic blunder and participated in subsequent votes. Earlier this year, Burundi's main opposition parties boycotted a presidential election over allegations of massive fraud, delivering a second five-year term to the unopposed incumbent, President Pierre Nkurunziza.Around the globe in Myanmar, also known as Burma, the military junta that has governed for 20 years is scheduled to hold its first parliamentary elections on Nov. 7 amid charges of foul play. Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi is barred from running and her party is boycotting, although a splinter group has decided to run.