Debate still rages in birthplace of anti-Mubarak revolt

By Nehal El-Sherif, dpa

   Al-Mahalla, Egypt (dpa) – A heated debate took place Wednesday in a polling station in the industrial Nile Delta town of al-Mahalla, when Hamdy Hussein, a leading labour rights activist, began arguing with a group of female voters about the candidates in Egypt’s first ever free presidential election.

   The leftist 60-year-old activist is a vehement opponent of Amr Moussa, a former foreign minister and Arab League chief whom the women favoured for president.

   "I’ve voted for Moussa because he knows better and will bring stability back to the country," Um Ahmed, one of the women, dressed in a black gown and veil, told the angry-looking activist.
  
   Moussa is one of 13 candidates vying to succeed Hosny Mubarak, under whom he served for ten years until 2001 and who was removed from power in a popular revolt in February 2011.

   “Did we oust Mubarak only to bring his aide to power?" Hussein, the activist, retorted.

Labour rights activist Hamdy Hussein in a heated argument with women at a polling station in Al-Mahalla - credit:Nehal El-Sherif

   The altercation echoes a current controversy in Egypt about the possibility of having a Mubarak-era official as a president.

   In al-Mahalla, an industrial hub located around 100 kilometres north of Cairo, the controversy is more heated - for a reason.
   
   It was the town where the revolution against Mubarak, who ruled Egypt for nearly 30 years, originated almost four years before his actual ouster.

   A town of almost half a million people, al-Mahalla saw a major strike staged by textile workers in 2008 to protest high prices, low wages and questionable privatization of several state-owned institutions.

   In solidarity with the strikers, a group of opposition online activists promoted the call for a nationwide strike to be held on April 6, 2008.

   On that day, the April 6 Youth Movement, a key catalyst in the anti-Mubarak uprising, was born and swiftly succeeded in putting al-Mahalla workers’ action into national and international spotlight.

   Hussein was engaged in the rudimentary revolt in Al-Mahalla. He heads the Socialist Horizons Centre, a non-governmental group, which has been organizing sessions to teach al-Mahalla residents about their rights for the past six years.

   On the facade of his centre, there are two posters of the leftist presidential candidate Khaled Ali, with a small sticker reading: "The worker’s voice is rising."

   Hussein walked around the town on Wednesday, braving the blazing sun, to check on the polls - although he has little faith the election will be fair.

   "They are the same people who supervised Mubarak's elections," he said, referring to a six-judge commission overseeing the current polls.

   "Meanwhile, some candidates are spending out a lot of money to woo voters. This is tantamount to vote rigging," he told dpa.
  
   Hussein, a staunch supporter of leftist candidate Ali, was detained 13 times during Mubarak's rule due to his advocacy of workers’ causes.

   He said authorities had repeatedly transferred him from one job to another across Egypt “to silence me.”

    The 2008 strike was a rehearsal for the 2011 revolution, according to the textile worker Mohammed Ali Hammad.

   “Al-Mahalla was the first place where Mubarak's posters were removed and torn apart,” he said.

   "Last year- three days before the January 25 revolution, we gathered in front of the main police station in the town shouting: ‘Let us move for change’,” added the 57-year-old activist, who was detained during the 2008 strike.

   Hammad said he had voted for Hamdeen Sabahy, who has a socialist approach similar to that of late Egyptian president Gamal Abul-Nasser.
 
   "I'm not a Nasserist. But I support Sabahy because he promised that his first decision (as a president) would be to improve workers’ wages,” said Hammad.

   “I hope as a president, Sabahy will create more jobs so that my three graduate children can find work after years of trying their hands at casual work,” he said.

   The April 6 movement, which has since grown into a nationwide network of activists, is not supporting a particular candidate.

   “All members of the group are free to choose whom they want,” said Amr Osama, a member of the April 6 movement in al-Mahalla. 

   “But of course, while voting, we take into account the April 6 principles seeking to create change and establish democracy in Egypt with less powers for the president, and more powers to the parliament and the government,” he added.