31 Jan. - 6 Feb. 2002
Issue No.571
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 31 Jan. - 6 Feb. 2002 Issue No.571 |
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Forgeries, big and small
A ceramics tycoon is slated to represent the ruling National Democratic Party in the by-election for Cairo's Nasr City district. Gamal Essam El-Din reports
The ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) chose Mustafa El-Sallab, a distributor for several major ceramics companies, to be its candidate in the forthcoming by-election for the Cairo district of Nasr City. El-Sallab's selection came on the eve of the People's Assembly's decision to annul the membership of Nasr City MP and businessman Fawzi El-Sayed.
The assembly acted in the wake of a 15 January court ruling that sentenced El-Sayed to three years imprisonment after he was found guilty of forging official documents to obtain building permits and his failure to pay electricity and water bills.
Candidate registration for Nasr City's by-election was opened on 29 January and is due to close on Saturday, approximately one month ahead of the polling that is scheduled for 3 March. Three NDP members vied for the party's nomination: Thuraya Labna, a former NDP MP for the district; Nabil El-Mazni, chairman of Cairo's Public Transport Authority; and Mustafa El-Sallab, chairman of the NDP's east Cairo office.
El-Sallab was selected by senior party members through an open ballot under a system dubbed "the electoral college system." The open ballot was adopted by the party for nominating candidates last year as part of an internal reform effort. Previously candidates were chosen through a secret ballot by senior party members. El-Sallab won 68 votes out of a total of 120.
The assembly's decision to strip Nasr City's former MP El- Sayed of his parliamentary membership was not the first time the legislature took such an action, nor is it expected to be the last. During November last year, two independent MPs and businessmen Rami Lakah and Talaat Mutawie were expelled from parliament because they are dual nationals.
On 2 February, the People's Assembly is expected to agree to lift parliamentary immunity for Bahaaeddin El-Miligi and Hussein Eweiss, NDP MPs for districts in Al-Fayoum, to face charges of forging official documents claiming that they owned several plots of land in the governorate. Requests submitted to parliament by Justice Minister Farouk Seifel-Nasr to strip the Al-Fayoum MPs of their immunity said that the MPs could use the forged documents to obtain as much as LE162 million in compensation from the state for the lands that were sequestred by the government in the 1960s. Already, the assembly's Legislative and Constitutional Affairs Committee has agreed to lift El-Miligi and Eweiss's immunity to allow prosecution authorities to question them.
In spite of the above cases, the drama of parliamentary forgers or suspected forgerers appears to be continuing. Salah Ragab, NDP MP for the Delta governorate of Al-Gharbiya, was saved last week from being referred to parliament's ethics committee. Ragab was accused of faking the signature of the chairman of parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, MP Mustafa El-Fiqi, in an attempt to obtain jobs for two of his relatives at the Ministry of Petroleum. El-Fiqi said he was surprised by a letter from the Ministry of Petroleum, informing him that his request to appoint Ragab's relatives had been approved. "After discovering what had happened, I informed Speaker [of parliament] Fathi Sorour who decided to refer Ragab to the Ethics Committee," said El-Fiqi, who was once President Hosni Mubarak's information secretary. Ragab escaped disciplinary action by the Ethics Committee by apologising to El-Fiqi.
The rash of criminal charges against MPs was not confined to the People's Assembly. On 21 January -- the same day El- Sayed was stripped of his parliamentary membership -- the Supreme Administrative Court ruled that Farag El-Rawwas, a prominent businessman, should be stripped of his membership in the Shura Council on the grounds that he had evaded military service. El-Rawwas is Egypt's sole agent for a major Japanese automaker and NDP MP for the Cairo district of Al- Sayeda Zeinab. El-Rawwas has been a major contributor to Sorour's bids for Al-Sayeda Zeinab's parliamentary seat. The court's ruling, which is binding on the Shura Council, said that not only did El-Rawwas evade military service, but that he is also illiterate.
A report by the Court of Cassation sent to the assembly last week said that NDP MP for South Sinai, Ahmed Hamed Radi, had also evaded military service by forging a certificate asserting that he had fulfilled his obligation in 1971, during the war of attrition. The matter is scheduled to be discussed by the Legislative and Constitutional Affairs Committee next week.
In the meantime, the NDP is gearing up for April's municipal elections. Candidate registration was scheduled to end today. Elections will see candidates vie for a staggering 49,820 seats on councils at the village, district and governorate levels. As many as 100,000 NDP members are competing to be the party's official candidates for these elections.
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