Most of Egypt's opposition political parties have said that they will not boycott any upcoming parliamentary polls, even if the newly-amended election laws fall short of their demands Recent amendments to three laws necessary to pave the way for Egypt's long-delayed parliamentary elections have drawn fire from the country'smainstreampolitical parties. In several public statements, differentoppositionparties complained thatthe amendments, endorsed by the State Council's Department of Legislation andFatwasonMonday,fall far short of the electoral reforms they had suggested. "The amendments go against most of the legislative reforms proposed by opposition parties, not to mentionthat they made it quite impossible forany political party to gain a majority in parliament," said Anwar El-Sadat, chairman of the liberal Reform and Development Party and a nephew of late president Anwar El-Sadat. The amendments, prepared by a government-appointed committee and revisedby the State Council's Department of Legislation andFatwasto be in line with the new constitution,are part of a review of three election laws that determine the workings of the House of Representatives, the Division of Electoral Constituencies, and the Exercise of Political Rights. "While thecommittee and the council havealmost prepared a semi-final draft of the constituencies law, deliberations over the two laws regulating the house of representatives and the exercise of political rights are still ongoing,"Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Transitional Justice Ibrahim El-Heneidytold parliamentary reporters on Monday. The semi-final draft of the constituencies law will be referred back to the cabinet, Heneidysaid. "In its coming plenary meeting, the cabinet will review the remarks raised by the council and, if approved, the law will be endorsed and sent to President Abdel-Fatah El-Sisifor final ratification." Heneidyexplained that the semi-final draft of the constituencies law came after a meeting between him and chairmanof the Department of Legislation and Fatwas MagdiEl-Agati, attended by members of the government drafting committee and AliAwad,former presidentAdliMansour'sadvisor for legal and constitutional affairs. Heneidysaid that all parties at the meeting had agreed that the total number of parliamentary seats remain unchanged at596, with448(78percent) reserved for independents,120(17percent) for party-based MPs and28(5percent)for presidential appointees. "We made just a very slight change: that the number of constituencies reserved for competition among independents should be205instead of206," saidHeneidy. "Of the205constituencies reserved for independents, 43will return a single MP each,93will return two,49will return three MPs and20will return four,"explained RifaatQomsan,a drafting committee member and an advisor to Prime Minister IbrahimMahlabon election affairs. Qomsantold reporters that the recent division of independent constituencies wasdesigned to be in accordance withthe Supreme Constitutional Court's (SCC) 1March ruling thatthe constituencies law be amendedto observe equality among independent constituencies in13governorates. The ruling led to the postponement of the country's parliamentary elections, which had been scheduled to begin on21March. The SCC ruling stipulated that any new division must ensure that the difference in number of voters between one independent constituency and another did not exceed25percent. Heneidyindicated that the Monday meeting between the committee members and the State Council's judges ensured that the difference did not exceed25percent and that the assessment of voter distribution be based on population statistics released in May, rather than in January. Opposition's suggestion rejected Heneidysaid that, while the opposition's unified amendments to the laws on the House of Representatives and the Exercise of Political Rights have been accepted, all of their proposals for changes to the constituencies law had been rejected. "Although the opposition's unified [suggestions for] amendments were rejected, I still have high hopes that the State Council will approve an increase in the number of the party list constituencies from four to eight," Sadat said. "Constituencies allocated to competition between party lists remain unchanged," Heneidysaid. "There are still four, while the constituencies reserved for independents have been reduced by one." "Whatever the final outcome, we all hope that the semi-final draft of the constituencies law will finally pave the way for parliamentary elections to be held, and that the resulting parliament will not be threatened by any future constitutional challenges," Sadat said. "This is why we proposed that the election laws bescrutinisedfirst by the SCC, so that the new parliament does not face thethreatof dissolution," said Sadat. MagdiSharabeya,secretary-general of the leftistTagammuParty, criticised the recent amendments, complaining that the new division of independent constituenciesstillmakesit highly difficult for candidates with limited funds to compete successfully. "The way the law mixes large and small-scale constituenciesclearlyfavourswealthy candidates and places strain on political parties when it comes to campaign funding," saidSharabeya. Ahmed El-Boraie,a former minister of social solidarity and member of the Democratic Current, an allianceof revolutionary liberal and leftist parties, launched a scathing attack against the amendments. "From the very beginning, we have voiced sharp criticism of the three election draft laws," saidBoraie,"andthatthe State Council'srecentapproval of thenewamendments mean that around80percent of parliamentary seats will remain reserved to independents, thus opening the door wide for wealthy business tycoons and candidates with family and tribal connections to dominate the coming parliament." Political partiesshould boycott any coming electionsin protest at these ill-advised laws,Boraiesaid. TheWafdParty also joined the chorus of critics, accusing the government and the State Council of ignoring the opposition's proposed electoral reforms. "Instead of increasing the number of independent and party list constituencies, they did the opposite, opting to maintain the number of party-list constituencies at four, while decreasing the total number of independent ones,” said Wafd spokesman HossamAl-Khouli. Al-Khouli,however, stressedthat the WafdParty would not heed any calls to boycott the polls and that it is ready to compete in the elections under any circumstances. http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/133035.aspx
