The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights

Political participation is one of the most important mechanisms for the right to administer public life.
Political participation also indicates the extent to which the right to peaceful circulation of authority occurs.
This means that the role of political parties in the society should be activated to contribute to the enrichment of dialogue and discussion, revive public work and put suitable solutions to the problems of the society and citizens.
However, EOHR monitored several restrictions to this right in light of the authority's monopoly of the political arena and thus the denial of opposition groups from freely participating in the public political sphere.
Even though the issue of democracy has become a pressing one, EOHR has not monitored any developments during 2002.
The only positive factor is the increase of concern by women's and national institutions concerned with women's issues to increase women's political participation.

The Legislative Environment in Light of the Emergency Law:
Article 62 of the Egyptian Constitution states: "Citizens shall have the right to vote, nominate, and express their opinions in referendums according to the provisions of the law.
Their participation in public life is a national duty".
The Supreme Constitutional Court stated on 16 May 1987 in case number 131 that the political rights stated in this article, which include the right to nominate, in addition to the right to vote and express opinion through referendum, are considered by the constitution as general rights.
The constitution was keen to enable citizens to enjoy these rights in order to ensure their contribution in choosing their leader and representatives.
The constitution did not stop short at only ensuring this right for each citizen but added that participation in public life is a duty that citizens should perform.

EOHR sees that for article 62 to be implemented, all obstacles standing between citizens and their rights in elections have to be removed.

EOHR regrets to announce that the political and legislative environment under the umbrella of the Emergency Law weakens the principle of equal opportunities between nominees.
In this context, the Emergency Law (Law number 162 for the year 1958) constantly forms a direct threat to the impartiality of the election process for the following reasons:

These provisions have frozen the constitutional right as stated in article 62 of the Egyptian Constitution.
In addition, the Emergency law largely removes judicial authority on supervising and observing the election process.
Correct democratic practice calls for all stages of the election process to be guaranteed free and fair.
The year 2002 revealed the continuation of the authority's desire to exclude opposition political groups from attaining decision-making posts and this was highlighted by more than one event.
In this context, governmental and security interference came in elections that were held in several districts during 2002 ,when certain representative's membership were denied by the court of cassation due to the annulment of elections in a number of districts, such as : Al-Raml; Alexandria, Al-Oula; Damanhur, and al-Mahmoudiya; Beheira.

Al Raml District, Alexandria:
During July 2002, in re-elections for Al Raml district, the nominee Jihan al-Halafawy (nominated by the Muslim Brotherhood) stood against the nominee of the NDP (the ruling National Democratic Party).
Elections were postponed in Al Raml district for almost a year and a half.
On 26 July 2002, elections were held under judicial supervision.
However, EOHR noticed constant pressure from security authorities occurring outside the election committees, as judicial supervision was limited to the committees only.

Al Oula District, Damanhur:
On 15 December 2002, the Peoples Assembly voted, with a majority of 337, to annul the membership of Gamal Hishmat representing Al Oula District in Damanhur.
The legislative committee's report confirmed that elections in this district were void.
Thus, new election procedures took place between Gamal Hishmat (Independent) and the representative of Al-Wafd Party, Khairy Falag, on Wednesday 8 January 2003, in which Al-Wafd's representative won, under the 'protection' of security forces who prevented voters from voting freely..

Al Mahmoudiya, Beheira:
On Sunday 5 January 2002, complementary elections took place in al Mahmoudiya district, Beheira, for the Peoples Assembly.
Seven nominees were up for election including a nominee for Al-Wafd Party and a nominee from the NDP.
The rest were independent.
Results of fieldwork follow up that EOHR completed on previous complementary elections concluded several points. These are:

1. Abuse of power by local authorities to support governmental candidates:
EOHR noticed that governors and local public authorities tend to support governmental candidates.
This is represented by the fact that governmental candidates monopolize central places and squares to hang their banners.
It is also represented by the fact that such authorities conform with the candidates requests to provide certain services to the people of the district, such as paving roads, appointing supporters to jobs in executive authorities and responding to some of the requests to transfer certain employees from one job to another.

2. Limitation of judicial supervision of elections:
Two years ago there was a presidential decree amending the law on supervision of political rights, giving the judiciary power to supervise the process of election.
However, supervision by the judiciary only occurs inside committees.
This allows for interference by police officers to alter the process of elections outside the committee.
Even though judicial supervision limits the forging of votes, it does not prevent police violations outside the committee.
This shows a need for granting the judiciary wider powers both outside and inside committees to ensure the free and fair process of election.

3. Contravention of the police's role in securing the process of elections:
In this context, EOHR has noticed large interference by security authorities in the process of elections.
No doubt, this kind of meddling has largely influenced the process of elections.

EOHR noticed a continuation of security campaigns against members of the opposition.
One example would be the two hundred and fifteen citizens in the districts of Al Mahmoudiya and Damanhur who were supporting the representative of Al-Wafd in al-Mahmoudiya and the Muslim Brotherhood's representative from al-Oula District in Damanhur.

In Al Raml District in Alexandria EOHR noticed exaggerated violent treatment by police against gatherings outside committees.
The situation has reached the point that security forces have imposed security blockades at the entrances to some villages, including Abis village (Alexandria) which was transformed to a closed military barrack where no one was allowed to enter or exit this or surrounding villages in order to prevent supporters of candidates from going out to vote.

Even though the Minister of Interior has made statements to limit the role of police forces in securing the election process outside committees only, the violations have included attacks on media personnel mandated to cover elections.
EOHR has noticed from some of the complaints and the fieldwork follow up that some of the journalists and satellite channels' correspondents were arrested.
These include:

1. Jihan Rashid: A correspondent for the German television was arrested on 27 June 2002 in front of one of the committees, along with Ayman Atef, a photographer whose camera film was confiscated.
They were detained in Al Raml police station and were told that next time the camera would be destroyed.

2. Hany Omarah: Correspondent for Abu Dhabi channel was arrested with Reda al-Shafeay, a photographer.
The camera was confiscated and the film, containing footage of the elections, was destroyed.
They were detained for six hours inside Al Raml police station and then released with a warning not to repeat their actions.

3. Collective arrests during the election process: a large number of supporters of the Islamic stream were arrested and detained in various places.
Their numbers reached approximately one thousand and one, and included the Muslim Brotherhood representative Jihan al-Halafawy and her supporters, who are:

4- Collective banning of opposition supporters to vote:
EOHR noticed that some police officers, during the election process, were imposing security cordons in front of committees to prevent opposition voters from voting.
It is worth mentioning that such exclusion zones have extended to a distance of one or two kilometers on some of the roads leading to committees.

Establishing the Committee for Defending Democracy:
On the other hand, during June 2002 a committee to defend democracy was established through meetings held by representatives from parties, political powers, associations, non-governmental organizations and human rights institutes.
The committee included the following institutions:

The establishment of the committee was announced in a press conference held at the headquarters of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights on Tuesday 19 November 2002. A program for the committee was established in order to achieve political and constitutional reforms in Egypt. The most important ones being:

In the press conference, the committee announced its principles.
These are: For all citizens, without discrimination based on gender, religion, color, social class, or political affiliation.

The committee believes in the necessity of constitutional reforms after a transitional period in which liberties are freed in order for the constitution can become a democratic one, allowing the nation to be the true authority which will lead to a true parliamentary republic.
Until then, the committee will work by all peaceful means to achieve the following:

The Committee for Defending Democracy gets its legitimacy from its commitment towards the principles that its founders adopted.
It is worth mentioning that the Committee proposed an agenda during 2002/2003.
The most important aspects of it were:

1. Organizing a campaign aiming for canceling the State of Emergency, which has been in effect for 21 years and which should end in 2003 2. Studying the executive regulations for the civil associations and institution laws 3. Amending the law supervising political rights and the system of elections for the Peoples Assembly