CAIRO // Most of Egypt's opposition parties are urging the Muslim Brotherhood, the country's largest and oldest opposition group, to boycott legislative elections in November. Mohamed ElBaradei renewed his call through Twitter on Saturday that "only by boycotting the elections and signing [the] petition for change can we be credible and impose our will on a repressive regime. Let us all unite."
Mr ElBaradei, 68, who many see as a viable candidate for president in 2011, has been urging Egyptians to boycott the November elections unless the constitution is amended to restore local judicial supervision over elections. He also wants international monitors to observe elections and Egyptians living abroad to be able to vote. He believes engaging in elections under current laws would be giving the regime a legitimacy that he says it is desperate for but does not deserve.
Mr ElBaradei's National Association for Change (NAC) as well as the Muslim Brotherhood have been collecting signatures for a reform campaign. They have a joint website that says they have gathered 675,000 signatures so far. The petition lists seven demands, including allowing independents to run for president and lifting the country's emergency laws, which critics say stifle dissent. Mr ElBaradei, a Nobel prizewinner and the former director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said he believes that the regime cannot ignore those demands if at least one million Egyptians sign the petition for reform.
He is expected back in the country in early September after spending his summer abroad. The Brotherhood had said it would help Mr ElBaradei collect signatures, but said the decision to boycott the elections or participate in them must come from within the group. The Brotherhood has been banned since 1954, but its members have run as independent candidates in every legislative election since 1984, except for 1990.
They won 20 per cent of the seats in parliament when they ran in 2005, but have not won any seats in any city council or parliament's upper house in elections since then. For the fourth consecutive year, state security orders prohibited hotels and clubs from hosting the Brotherhood's annual iftar. The group used to host iftars in the spacious ballrooms of five-star hotels, where more than 1,000 members, prominent figures and media representatives regularly attended.
This year's event was instead held on Wednesday at the Muslim Brotherhood's headquarters for its 88 lawmakers last week. About 50 leaders of political parties, opposition groups and activists attended and almost all urged the Brotherhood to boycott the elections. "Rigging the upcoming elections is inevitable," said Hassan Nafaa, a political scientist and leading figure with the NAC. "We shouldn't take part in rigged elections, as we don't want to participate in forgery. Can we, the opposition, all boycott the upcoming elections? If we can't, that would be a catastrophe," he said.
Mr Nafaa added that an effective boycott would "shake the pillars of the regime". Ayman Nour, leader of el-Ghad opposition party, who finished a distant second to Hosni Mubarak in the 2005 presidential elections, said he has changed his mind about taking part in November elections. "I used to be a staunch believer and caller for participating in elections," Mr Nour, 45, said. "Today there are no elections to start with. It's absurd."
Mr Mubarak's National Democratic Party (NDP) is often accused of rigging elections through intimidation and bribery. Many believe that Mr Mubarak's youngest son, Gamal, 46, is being groomed to succeed him. Over the past month, posters of Gamal, a former investment banker and head of the NDP's influential policies committee, have been plastered around Cairo and other provinces by a group called the Popular Campaign to Support Gamal Mubarak. Other groups are collecting signatures for a petition supporting him as presidential candidate.
Although the NDP denies any involvement in the campaign, reports claim that businessmen close to Gamal Mubarak and who are senior members of the NDP are behind the campaign. Hosni Mubarak, 82, has been in power since 1981 and has not yet announced if he will run in 2011. He urged political parties and citizens last week to "actively take part in the upcoming parliamentary elections". He vowed that they will be "free, transparent and fair".
Saad Aboud of Al-Wafd, Egypt's oldest liberal party, also urged the Brotherhood to boycott elections. Mohammed Badie, the Brotherhood leader, told those at the iftar that he wants the Brotherhood to carefully consider the implications of a boycott before making a decision on it. "We need a calculated study, as it's the Egyptian people who are the ones who will either participate or boycott. "Unite your stance, and we won't let you down."
nmagd@thenational.ae
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Essentials
The flights
Whether you trek after mountain gorillas in Rwanda, Uganda or the Congo, the most convenient international airport is in Rwanda’s capital city, Kigali. There are direct flights from Dubai a couple of days a week with RwandAir. Otherwise, an indirect route is available via Nairobi with Kenya Airways. Flydubai flies to Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo, via Entebbe in Uganda. Expect to pay from US$350 (Dh1,286) return, including taxes.
The tours
Superb ape-watching tours that take in all three gorilla countries mentioned above are run by Natural World Safaris. In September, the company will be operating a unique Ugandan ape safari guided by well-known primatologist Ben Garrod.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, local operator Kivu Travel can organise pretty much any kind of safari throughout the Virunga National Park and elsewhere in eastern Congo.
THREE
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Safety 'top priority' for rival hyperloop company
The chief operating officer of Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, Andres de Leon, said his company's hyperloop technology is “ready” and safe.
He said the company prioritised safety throughout its development and, last year, Munich Re, one of the world's largest reinsurance companies, announced it was ready to insure their technology.
“Our levitation, propulsion, and vacuum technology have all been developed [...] over several decades and have been deployed and tested at full scale,” he said in a statement to The National.
“Only once the system has been certified and approved will it move people,” he said.
HyperloopTT has begun designing and engineering processes for its Abu Dhabi projects and hopes to break ground soon.
With no delivery date yet announced, Mr de Leon said timelines had to be considered carefully, as government approval, permits, and regulations could create necessary delays.
The Travel Diaries of Albert Einstein The Far East, Palestine, and Spain, 1922 – 1923
Editor Ze’ev Rosenkranz
Princeton
The specs
Engine: Dual 180kW and 300kW front and rear motors
Power: 480kW
Torque: 850Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh359,900 ($98,000)
On sale: Now
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
A State of Passion
Directors: Carol Mansour and Muna Khalidi
Stars: Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah
Rating: 4/5
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