Amendment of article 76 between international expertise and the situation in Egypt - EOHR roundtable discussion
7/5/ 2005
While welcoming President Mubarak's proposal for amendment of article 76 members of the Egyptian Constitutional Observatory call for genuine guarantees for nomination to the presidential office in addition to electoral guarantees in connection with the law governing the president's election.
These demands were made at the end of the roundtable discussion held by the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) under the title Amendment of article 76 between international expertise and the situation in Egypt on Tuesday 3rd May 2005.
Participants agreed unanimously that the president should be chosen through a direct, secret ballot of People's Assembly members who have the right to choose from among more than one candidate. Different opinions however were put forward on the conditions surrounding candidature and the nature of the election supervisory committee. These opinions can be summarised as follows:
Conditions to ensure the seriousness of candidatures
Opinion one
In order to ensure that only serious candidatures are put forward for the presidency, some participants suggested that individuals wishing to nominate themselves for the office should have to secure support from elected representatives in constitutional bodies or local councils, and that this support should amount to 5% of People's Assembly members or 5% of local councils on condition that these representatives are drawn from at least 8 governorates.
Supporters of this opinion rejected the collection of signatures as a nomination method because it infringes the direct secret ballot principle guaranteed in the Constitution and encourages candidates to gather as many signatures as possible - therefore deciding the outcome of the battle before it has even begun.
Many participants opposed this suggestion because it renders the National Democratic Party (NDP) the arbitrator of nominations because of the party's near total domination of Parliament and local councils.
Opinion two
Those wishing to nominate themselves for the presidency must collect the signatures of 10 - 20,000 voters from at least 20 governorates. The Supreme Constitutional Court would have responsibility for examining candidatures on the basis of the documents presented by the candidate and would also be responsible for compiling candidate lists.
The election supervisory committee
Opinion one
The committee should be made up of heads of judicial bodies, public figures, constitutional law professors, members of civil society and union members. Representative of political parties may also join the committee provided that the head of the committee is nominated from amongst the committee's seven members (3 members of political parties and 3 independent figures.) Approval of the committee's makeup will be issued by the People's Assembly and Shura Council.
This opinion did not receive the support of many participants.
Opinion two
The majority of participants were of the opinion that membership of the committee should be restricted exclusively to judicial figures and that the committee head should be elected from amongst their ranks. The committee's decisions should be made through majority vote and should be unchallengeable.
The two opinions agreed on the committee's mandate; judicial supervision of the elections beginning with preparation of the electoral register and ending with the declaration of the election results. It would also have jurisdiction to consider appeals, receive and review nominations, supervise the use of public funds in elections and ensure that no obstacles prevent voters from exercising their vote - in particular prevention by the police of opposition candidate supporters from carrying out their election duties.
Participants agreed on the following three points:
1. Funding regulations
a. All presidential candidates must disclose the source of funding for their election campaigns. A ceiling of ten million Egyptian pounds should be imposed on election campaign spending and all candidates must testify to their financial obligations. This condition must be obligatory and nominations rejected unless they are accompanied with this testimony.
b. A ceiling must be imposed on donations from both individuals (up to 5,000 Egyptian pounds) and companies (up to 30,000 LE) Any donation from companies in which the government has an interest must be prohibited.
c. All candidates must be obliged to present details of their expenditures describing expenses, who received the money and why it was spent. These records should be made public and open to perusal. They should be subject to auditing if they infringe these rules.
Other participants suggested that the state should shoulder the burden for a portion of financing in order to ward off the danger liable to emerge from internal or foreign funding. They stated that internal funding poses a greater danger than funding sought from abroad on which it is easier to keep tabs. This is problematic in the case of internal funding. They suggested that the Central Accounts Agency have responsibility for supervising electoral campaign funding.
2. Neutrality of state administrative bodies
Participants emphasised the necessity of ministries, state organs, local administrative bodies and the police maintaining strict neutrality. They should be prohibited from supporting ruling party candidates in any form whether financially, through the use of processions or propaganda in work places. Anyone who infringes these rules should be sent to trial and receive a harsh penalty.
3. Equal use of state media during election campaigns
Participants agreed that the following regulations must be imposed on the use of state media during election campaigns:
a. All candidates must be given the opportunity to use all forms of media (television and state and opposition press) to publicise their manifesto. There should be a provision in legislation governing elections that the law guarantees equality of opportunity to all presidential candidates in the use of state media. This must be supervised either by the independent election committee or a specialised independent committee formed for this purpose with the agreement of all candidates. The executive should not interfere in its composition.
b. The media should remain independent and independent of the government. A provision in the legislation governing presidential elections to this effect must be created.
c. All candidates must have the right to convene seminars, press conferences and public rallies in order to present their manifestos.
At the close of the roundtable discussion participants called for the following:
a. The amendment of article 76 must be accompanied by the amendment of other constitutional provisions, specifically provisions concerned with the jurisdiction and competencies of the president. Some participants called for the creation of a popular constitutional body responsible for the drafting of a new constitution which would make the political system in Egypt a democratic system rather than an autocratic regime.
b. An appropriate political environment must be created in order to hold free and fair elections. This can be realised through the annulment of the state of emergency. Some participants proposed that the Constitution should contain a provision stating that the state of emergency will be suspended from the moment the doors for nominations open until the final election results are announced. The legislative and supervisory role of legislative bodies and the judicial branch must be strengthened, freedom to form political parties guaranteed and the educational system reformed.
Participants agreed that because Egyptian society has special characteristics others' experiments do not apply. Regulations governing presidential candidature and guaranteeing the seriousness of candidates must originate from Egyptian society itself and its conditions. It is therefore not possible to borrow from other countries' experiences.
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