Egypt’s Islamist-Led Shura Council Amends Law On Political Rights

Deputies of the Muslim Brotherhood and their allies in the Islamist-led Shura Council (the upper house of Egypt’s parliament, currently endowed with legislative powers) teamed up on Monday and Tuesday to approve amendments to a 1956 law on the exercise of political rights.

The amendments were introduced by the government after Egypt’s Administrative Court ruled last month that the current version of the law – approved by the Shura Council on 21 February – was constitutionally and legally flawed. The law was referred back to the High Constitutional Court (HCC), which is not expected to issue a ruling on it in the short term.

According to Sobhi Saleh, deputy chairman of the Shura Council’s legislative and constitutional affairs committee and a leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), “the two laws regulating parliamentary elections – on the exercise of political rights and the performance of the House of Representatives [the lower house of Egypt’s parliament] – were entirely amended by the government.”

He added: “This was seen as the best option, rather than waiting for the law to be ruled constitutional or unconstitutional [by the HCC].”

The Shura Council had also been expected to convene a plenary session on Wednesday to discuss amendments to the law regulating elections of the House of Representatives). The meeting, however, was postponed to next Sunday after Saleh told Shura Council Chairman Ahmed Fahmi on Tuesday that the constitutional affairs committee needed more time to issue a report on proposed amendments.

“The new law [on the House of Representatives] requires careful study because it includes several controversial articles, particularly those concerning the re-drawing of electoral districts,” said Saleh.

In response, Fahmi said: “The House law will be discussed by the Shura Council at a plenary meeting next Sunday to give the committee enough time to review it and issue a report on it.”

Political rights & parliamentary polls

The 69-article political rights law, meanwhile, states that “every male and female Egyptian of 18 years or more [instead of the proposed 16 years] shall have the right to vote in all general elections and referendums.” The same article also states that military and police officers will not have the right to vote during their period of service.

The above article, however, was amended by the Shura Council to add “members of the Egyptian intelligence apparatus and Administrative Control Authority” to the list of those ineligible to vote in elections.

Article 2 of the law strips several sectors of society of the right to cast ballots, including “convicted felons, unless rehabilitated; those sentenced to jail terms for crimes of theft; hiding stolen objects; swindling; issuing bad checks; breaches of trust; perfidy; bribery; criminal bankruptcy; forgery; using forged papers; perjury; rape; corrupting the youth; vagrancy; and committing a crime to get out of military or national service.”

The same article also states that “civil servants of the state or public sector workers who were dismissed from service because of a breach of honour will be stripped of their political rights unless five years have passed since the date of dismissal or a judicial order annulling their dismissal.” In addition, Article 3 states that the political rights of citizens suffering from mental disorders or who have gone bankrupt will be suspended.

Article 4 states that upcoming parliamentary elections will be conducted under the supervision of a Supreme Electoral Commission (SEC). This will be chaired by the head of Cairo’s Appeals Court and will include senior deputy heads of the Court of Cassation; senior deputy heads of Egypt’s State Council; and senior heads of Egypt’s courts of appeal.

The SEC’s powers and responsibilities, according to Article 10, will include “setting up main voting centres and polling and vote-counting stations; preparing and reviewing electoral lists (based on national identity cards); and supervising the registration process.”

The SEC will also be charged with allocating “electoral symbols” for party-based and independent candidates. The SEC will also be mandated with regulating the activities of the media during elections and the participation of civil society organisations in monitoring elections.

Religious campaign slogans

Articles 10 and 61 stirred controversy when Islamist MPs decided not to impose a ban on the use of religious slogans during electoral campaigns.

The FJP’s Saleh pointed out that Article 6 of Egypt’s new constitution did not ban religious electoral slogans. FJP members rallied behind Saleh’s argument, calling for the amendment of paragraph six of Article 10 to state that “electoral campaigning cannot be conducted based on gender or religious discrimination.”

This contrasts with the existing text, which states that “rules regulating electoral campaigning must impose a ban on the use of slogans, symbols or campaigning activities of a religious nature.”

Saleh also stirred controversy when he insisted that “slogans like ‘Islam is the Solution’ – used by the Muslim Brotherhood during parliamentary elections since the 1980s – are constitutional.” He added: “Administrative courts have stated 86 times that ‘Islam is the Solution’ does not violate the constitution.”

The FJP and ultra-conservative Salafist MPs mobilised behind the article allowing the use of religious electoral slogans.

“If we decided to impose a ban on religious slogans, then we should prevent the use of liberal and atheist slogans,” Saleh said. “The newly-approved constitution emphasises the Islamic character of Egypt. Therefore, there should not be a ban on religious slogans during electoral campaigning.”

Saleh’s argument was rejected by the government, however, with Deputy Justice Minister Omar El-Sherif saying “it is better to keep the government’s text [banning religious slogans] in place and leave the matter to the courts to decide what slogans are religious or not during campaigning.”

Salafist MPs, for their part, asserted: “Islamist slogans cannot be banned in a country that is 90 percent Muslim.” Liberal MPs, meanwhile, warned that the amendment would serve to “inflame religious tensions.”

Saleh’s argument was vehemently rejected by secular political activists.

“This dramatic amendment provides fresh proof that the law is being tailored to serve the interests of the Muslim Brotherhood and help inflame sectarian tensions in Egypt,” said Lawyers Syndicate Chairman Sameh Ashour, a member of the opposition National Salvation Front (NSF).

Ashour disagreed with Saleh, saying that Article 6 of the constitution clearly stated that “political parties, not electoral campaigns, cannot be based on discrimination in terms of gender or religion.” Ashour expects that, if the law on political rights is referred to the HCC in this form, “it will be ruled unconstitutional.”

Margrette Azer, a Coptic member of the liberal Wafd Party, asked: “If ‘Islam is the Solution’ is constitutionally valid, does this mean that Copts will also be allowed to use the slogan ‘Christianity is the Solution’ during parliamentary campaigning?”

Azer told Ahram Online that “the Muslim Brotherhood’s long-term strategy is to Islamise Egypt and discriminate among citizens based on religious and sectarian lines.”

Expatriate voting & red ink

Meanwhile, the Shura Council held a lengthy discussion of Article 15, which was amended to put overseas voting under full judicial supervision in compliance with HCC rulings.

“The amendment doesn’t mean that the government will send judges to countries all over the world to supervise the Egyptian expatriate vote,” said El-Sherif. Instead, the deputy justice minister noted, expatriates’ ballots would be sent by express mail to Egypt to be counted under judges’ supervision.

The text of Article 15 now states that “procedures for expatriate voting and vote-counting will be conducted ahead of elections at home and under complete judicial oversight in accordance with rules laid down by the SEC.”

By an overwhelming majority, the Shura Council rejected a government proposal to relieve voters of the necessity of staining their fingers with red ink before voting.

“This article requires the government to spend LE5 million a year to import red ink,” said El-Sherif. “It’s sufficient that voters simply show their national identity cards or valid passports.”

The proposal was rejected with MPs insisting that Article 38 state that “all voters must stain their fingers with 24-hour indelible red ink after voting, and that they must sign their names in the book of registered voters.”

On Tuesday, the Shura Council approved articles 30 to 69 of the elections law. The most important of these was Article 37, which states that “the voting process begins at 9am and ends at 9pm over two days; judges can extend voting hours to allow all voters to exercise their rights.”

Article 40 strictly prohibits citizens from voting twice, while Article 50 states that “any citizen who abstains from voting without an acceptable reason can be fined as much as LE500.” Article 51, meanwhile, makes voters found guilty of using force against supervising judges liable to imprisonment for up to five years.

Ahram