By Invitation Only

With suitable fanfare, President Gamal Abdel Nasser set about creating a little more democracy than has existed in Egypt since he seized power in July 1952. For 22 days a three-man council headed by General Abdel Hakim Amer, Egypt's top military man, had been weeding out undesirables among the 2,508 candidates who filed for the 350-man Parliament in next week's elections. Last week, after Nasser himself had given the list a final pruning, the council announced the 1,322 survivors who would be allowed to submit themselves to the voters.

As the government press told it, the Nasser men were guided by simple principles. All "imperialist, reactionary and opportunist elements" were eliminated. Amateurs who entered only for publicity were not tolerated. Some were eliminated for their own good, such as one fellah who sold his water buffalo and two-thirds of an acre of land to run for Parliament; the council rejected him in a kindly way on the grounds that he should not waste his substance in a candidacy which they considered hopeless. When other grounds failed, candidates were stricken off "for considerations of the National Union or certain policies"--that is, they were opposing men Nasser wanted elected.

When the selectors had finished, the opposition to 15 Cabinet officers running had vanished. So had the opponents of nine junta officers, including Nasser's chief political adviser, Wing Commander Ali Sabri. In one case, 22 candidates had to be struck off to guarantee the unopposed election of a favored candidate. In an effort to woo support from the middle class that Nasser has estranged, a handful of businessmen and bankers were encouraged by judicious sabotage of their rivals. In five constituencies all candidates were declared unsatisfactory.

Nasser's gratitude to Russia did not extend universally to Egypt's proCommunists. Khaled Moheddine, once known as the "Red Major," who is publisher of the Communist-line newspaper Al Messa, survived as did two or three other Communist sympathizers. But about 25 others, including Kamel el Bindari, the "Red Pasha" who is rated the spiritual father of Egyptian Communism, were eliminated by the council and told to take down their election posters.

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