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Al-Ahram Weekly 30 March - 5 April 2000 Issue No. 475 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 30 March - 5 April 2000 Issue No. 475
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Special Focus Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Government honours electoral promise
By Gamal Essam El-Din
The Constitutional Committee of the Shura Council, which is a consultative body with no legislative powers, has begun debating two government-sponsored bills aimed at ensuring full judicial supervision of polling stations and revising the definition of the "worker" and "farmer" designations in advance of the forthcoming parliamentary elections.
The first bill, which is an amendment of a 1956 law on the exercise of political rights, is intended to expand the judicial supervision of parliamentary elections at all their stages. To achieve this aim, the bill states that judicial committees will be established to supervise the polling stations. Each committee will be headed by a judge and will include members whose numbers will vary according to the location of the main polling station and the number of its affiliated auxiliary stations. The committee members will be required to visit not more than eight auxiliary stations, which should be located close to one another.
The bill also states that the vote-counting will be jointly overseen by the chairman of a vote-counting committee -- who is himself a judge -- and the chairman of the new judicial supervision committee. Both are authorised to jointly make the official announcement of the election results by signing it.
According to the bill's explanatory note, the amendment aims to ensure that judicial supervision is expanded to include all stages of balloting, vote-counting and announcing the election results. "This clearly reflects a new democratic attitude that seeks to secure the integrity of parliamentary elections," the note maintains.
In terms of revising the definitions of "farmers" and "workers", the second bill says that the last two paragraphs of the second article of Law 38 of 1972, which regulates the performance of the People's Assembly, be cancelled. These two paragraphs provide that members of parliament classified as fi'at (professionals), workers or farmers respectively before 15 May 1971 cannot subsequently change their designations.
There have been repeated calls for cancelling the two paragraphs after the State Council recently contested the definition of these classifications with the Supreme Constitutional Court. According to the Council, an MP should be able to alter his designation because of the rapidly changing politico-economic conditions in society.
The bill also raised the financial guarantee requested for contesting parliamentary elections from LE200 to LE1,000. According to the explanatory note, the increase is necessary to ensure that candidates are serious and it also reflects the rise in inflation rates.
The bill is expected to win overwhelming approval by the Shura Council when it comes up for debate in a plenary session this Saturday. But in the Legislative and Constitutional Committee of the People's Assembly, the bill is expected to face opposition from leftists. The five MPs of the left-wing Tagammu Party are angry that an amendment of the Political Rights Law proposed 10 years ago by their leader Khaled Mohieddin was deliberately ignored to give priority to the government-sponsored bill. Abdel-Moneim El-Oleimi, an independent MP, who proposed a third amendment, also complained on Sunday that both his and Mohieddin's proposals were completely ignored. Assembly Speaker Ahmed Fathi Sorour responded by affirming that, according to Assembly regulations, priority of debate must be given to government-sponsored bills.
Addressing the Assembly last Saturday, Prime Minister Atef Ebeid said that though he understood the worry expressed by the opposition he feels this worry is unjustified, as the amendment of the Law on the Exercise of Political Rights will ensure full judicial supervision over parliamentary elections. "Freedom has become all-encompassing and the exercise of political rights is now well-established... This is the kind of political reform whose fruits we we are proud of. We encourage citizens to defend it because it complements economic reform," Ebeid said.
According to Ebeid, freedom has become expansive because it enabled 15 parties to emerge and almost 500 magazines and newspapers to be published. "Some of the articles in these publications oppose the government, while others support it. We are happy because they guide our way, protect us from making mistakes and reveal any points of weakness," Ebeid argued.
He contended that the opposition's claim that his government would not be able to deliver on the social welfare promises he had made in his first policy statement to parliament is unjustified. "It is certain that these promises are ambitious and that the cost of keeping them will be high. Thanks to the opposition for this criticism but we are strongly committed to keeping these promises, whatever the cost may be," Ebeid said.
He also rejected claims that the Egyptian economy, especially the banking sector, was in the throes of a major crisis. "The Egyptian economy has begun to recover its balance as a result of the application of a package of far-sighted policies. The banking sector is in very good shape and the foreign exchange reserves are in good supply," Ebeid said.
To the great satisfaction of MPs, Ebeid emphasised that a host of military orders, which were issued by former Prime Minister Kamal El-Ganzouri in the area of construction and protection of agricultural land, will be scrapped. "A bill will be submitted by the government to have these orders repealed. Instead, these areas should be regulated by laws that are approved by parliament," Ebeid said. In response, Speaker Sorour accused El-Ganzouri's government of resorting too much to military orders. "These orders reflected a clear infringement of the Assembly's authority [to legislate]," Sorour said.
Following a debate of the government's policy statement that had dragged on for more than three months, the People's Assembly renewed confidence in Ebeid's government last Saturday.
