The 270-member Shura Council yesterday began discussing the controversial election law — approved by the Shura Council's Legislative and Constitutional Affairs Committee on Tuesday — with a majority of Islamist members expected to rubber-stamp the new legislation during a plenary meeting today. The 39 articles include amendments to the law on the exercise of political rights (Law 73/1956), and on the performance of the People's Assembly (Law 38/1972). The committee's approval followed six days of debate during which the Muslim Brotherhood and ultraconservative Salafis who dominate the council differed with representatives of civilian forces and newly-appointed Christian members over several articles. Islamists also differed with representatives of the Armed Forces and the Ministry of Defence over an article that allows citizens who have not performed military service to register as candidate in elections. The first clash erupted when Salafis objected to Paragraph 5 of Article 3 which stipulated that party-based lists of candidates must include one woman among the top candidates. The paragraph was eventually rejected by 13 votes to 11. Mohamed Touson, chairman of the committee and a member of Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), said it was deplorable that some members voted against this positive discrimination for women. He did, however, hold out hopes that “when the law comes up for discussion before the council in a plenary session on 16 January a majority of members will be in favour of retaining the article in favour of women.” Deputy Justice Minister Omar Sherif appealed to Salafis to vote in favour of the article. “Women in Egypt have been marginalised for too long and it is high time they played a greater role in political and parliamentary life. This is in line with the ideals of the 25 January Revolution,” he said. Led by the Nour Party, Salafis responded by saying they rejected the article not out of any bias against women but because it violates the constitution. “The new constitution states that no discriminatory quotas can be allocated to any sector of society in parliament. The whole matter should be left to voters,” argued Nour Party member Salah Abdel-Maaboud. “All we can do is urge political parties to place women at the top of their lists .We cannot legislate to compel them to do so.” The Salafis' position triggered furious reactions from the council's female members. Mona Makram Ebeid, an appointed Coptic member and professor of political science at the American University in Cairo, said: “I am disgusted by the masculine culture of most members of the council. This makes it clear to me that there is still a case of deep-rooted discrimination against women in Egypt.” Salafis also strongly objected to a proposal suggesting a quota of seats be reserved for Christians for an initial period of 10 years. Businessman and council appointee Rami Lakah warned that “unless this quota is instituted the new parliament will not contain a Coptic representatives.” Islamists insisted that reserving a quota for Christians could be ruled unconstitutional. Mohamed Mohieddin, a representative of the Ghad Al-Thawra Party led by Ayman Nour, urged political parties to field Christians on top of their candidate lists. Ebeid argued that it was extremely unlikely that Islamist parties would promote Christian candidates. The text of Article 3 (Paragraph 6) was the focus of differences between Salafis and the representative of the Ministry of Defence. The committee's approval on 10 January of the article granting citizens who had not performed military service the right to run in elections caused a backlash from the Ministry of Defence. Major General Mamdouh Shahin, assistant defence minister, surprised everyone by attending the committee's meeting on 12 January and insisting “the Armed Forces will never let this article be passed”. The committee's Islamists and secularists voted unanimously in favour of Article 7 which strips leading officials of former president Hosni Mubarak's defunct ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) from standing in parliamentary and presidential elections. The number of NDP officials negatively affected by this article — which conforms to Article 232 of the constitution — is estimated at between 1,300 and 1,500, including 315 members of the 2005 to 2010 People's Assembly, around 420 MPs from the 2010 parliamentary intake, 300 NDP members of the Shura Council between 2007 and 2010, and 200 members of the NDP's policies committee which was headed by Mubarak's younger son, Gamal. In its 150-page report, the committee judged the new law to be in line with Article 231 of the constitution which states that two thirds of members of the House of Representative be elected on the basis of party lists and one third by individual candidacy. The committee opted for 46 electoral districts to be reserved for competition among party-based candidates and 83 to be allocated to individual candidates. The report indicated that the list system will be closed rather than open, obliging voters to choose among complete lists of candidates rather than vote for certain names of candidates on one list. It said the law allowed a single list to include candidates fielded by more than one political party, or include a group of candidates. It did, however, stipulate that one-party-based lists of candidates must get at least a third of votes in an electoral district to secure a parliamentary seat. If the list failed to meet this threshold, the votes would be redistributed among winning lists. The committee also decided that polling stations will open at 9am. Justice Minister Ahmed Mekki was cited in the committee's report as stating that once approved by the council the new election law will be sent to the Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC) for revision in accordance with Article 177 of the constitution which states that political laws must be vetted by the SCC before they are ratified by the president. Mekki also indicated that the Court of Cassation will investigate any appeals filed against the results of elections and have the final say about the membership of deputies. Mekki also said the law had the support of most political forces who took part in the President Morsi sponsored national dialogue, a claim the National Salvation Front (NSF), disputes. In a 12 January press conference Mohamed Al-Baradei listed 10 conditions that must be met to ensure the integrity of the upcoming parliamentary elections. Foremost among these is that there should be “a judge for each ballot box”; the election must be held over a two-day period and no more than 750 voters must be in any one polling station. According to political science professor Gamal Zahran, the law fails to meet these conditions. “The law does not say a word about a two-day vote or place a ceiling on the number of voters in each polling station.” He said the NSF objected to the method of the redistribution of votes of political parties unable to get the required threshold and pointed out that the law failed to impose any penalties on the use of places of worship for electioneering or for raising religious slogans during campaigns. Zahran also lamented that the recent cabinet reshuffle presented the Muslim Brotherhood with the opportunity to manipulate the vote.
