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People's Assembly members adopt new EOHR draft law on the exercise of political rights
13/6/2005
A number of People's Assembly members have accepted the new draft law on the exercise of political rights presented by the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR). This news was announced by Hafez Abu Seada, EOHR Secretary General, during the press conference convened on 13th June 2005 in EOHR headquarters which was attended by members of the Egyptian Constitutional Observatory, human rights representatives and local and international news agencies.
Abu Seada added that a draft law on public elections and referenda had been discussed by EOHR in consultation with members of the Observatory and the Civil Society Election Monitoring Coalition. The law deals with all aspects of the electoral process and its organisation including the electoral register, voting, sorting of votes, the body responsible for supervision of the elections and election crimes. It emphasises the necessity of distancing the Interior and Justice Ministries from all stages of the electoral process and the importance of using invisible ink and fluorescent marking in voting and balloting.
Abu Seada also affirmed that EOHR has prepared a draft law complementary to the Public Elections and Referenda Law, the Law on Countering Corruption in Election Campaigns which was sent to both the People's Assembly and the Shura Council. It will be presented to the President with the Public Elections and Referenda Law.
Hussein Abdel Razeq, Secretary General of the Tagamoa Party and a representative of the Egyptian Constitutional Observatory confirmed that Egypt has not experienced any free election or referendum since the inception of party political plurality in 1976 - all have been forged to varying degrees, as has been confirmed by opposition parties and reports of the various divisions of the Cassation Court on appeals presented to it on the elections. The 1976 elections contained less forgery than those held in 1984 and 1987 which were entirely forged. He added that there is more than one law connected with the elections, including the Law on the Exercise of Political Rights, the People's Assembly Law and the draft law on the Presidential Elections. The advantage of EOHR's law is that attempts to combine all elections and referenda in one law in order to ensure their probity.
Hamdy Hassan, a member of the People's Assembly supported Abdel Razeq's comments stating that all the elections have been marked by a large degree of forgery. There was however a relative degree of transparency during the 2000 elections as a result of the judicial supervision carried out during them. He stated the necessity of the existence of a supreme judicial council to supervise the elections both in and outside polling stations, pointing to the existence of a provision on the formation of such a council in the draft law prepared by EOHR which will be presented to the council. He expressed his admiration for the draft laws presented by EOHR such as the draft law on the amendment of the Penal Code's provisions on torture.
Ali Fath al Bab, a member of the People's Assembly affirmed that in order to realise genuine reform in the country, a general climate which encourages the realisation of freedoms, annulment of the state of emergency and laws of bad repute and guaranteeing all the rights and freedoms enshrined in the Constitution, underlining that in order for EOHR's draft law on general elections and referenda to be passed, that genuine desire must exist. He also emphasised the importance of the draft law covering several fundamental elements necessary to guarantee the probity of the electoral process including the electoral register and its drawing up (a cause of many problems including inaccuracies in the spelling of names, the addition of names of deceased people, etc), election propaganda, the equality of the opportunities given to candidates, the body responsible for supervising the elections, election crimes and appeals in cases concerning election crimes. People's Assembly member Abu el Ezz al Hariri expressed his support for the EOHR draft law.
Karam Saber, director of the Land Center for Human Rights and a representative of the Civil Society Election Monitoring Coalition affirmed the importance of realising real political reform in the country through the release of political detainees and annulment of the state of emergency, pointing to the importance of carefully timing the launch of EOHR's draft law.
Participants agreed on the importance of international monitoring of the coming elections, affirming that monitoring is an integral part of the democratic process and an important guarantor of the probity of the electoral process - monitoring is a sign of the quality of any election process and does not conflict with state sovereignty. Rather, it is carried out at the government's request. Egypt has participated in election monitoring in several Arab countries, such as Yemen for example.
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