The head of the Egyptian parliament's constitutional and legislative affairs committee, Baha El-Din Abu Shoqa, said on Sunday that the committee will meet Monday to vote on a report about an election appeal filed against MP Ahmed Mortada Mansour. "The committee's report about this appeal will be discussed in a meeting tomorrow and members will be required to vote on it in line with the constitution," Abu Shoqa told MPs in a plenary session. His statement came in response to criticism leveled by MP Alaa Abdel-Moneim, head of the pro-government parliamentary bloc "Support Egypt", who queried why the committee took so much time in discussing the appeal and giving a final say on it. "Although the appeal was referred to the legislative and constitutional affairs committee on 25 July, it has so far refrained from finalising its report," said Abdel-Moneim. Abdel-Moneim, a former policeman who resigned to become a lawyer, threatened to withdraw from the committee if the report was not discussed on Sunday or Monday. "I wonder would Israel occupy Sinai again if Mansour was eliminated from parliament," said Abdel-Moneim sarcastically. Abdel-Moneim asserted that the appeal against Mansour's election, filed by rival Amr El-Shobaki, an Al-Ahram political analyst, was accepted by the Cassation Court which is solely authorised by the constitution to give a final say on election appeals. "The court said El-Shobaki won more votes than Mansour in Giza's district of Dokki during the last parliamentary elections and that he should become this district's elected MP instead of Mansour," said Abdel-Moneim. Abu Shoqa told reporters on 17 August that the committee has received two rulings about appeals against Ahmed Mortada Mansour. "The first was filed against the results of the first round of the election in Dokki district and it was rejected by the court, while the second ordered that the parliamentary membership of Mansour should be invalidated and that El-Shobaki should be considered the one who won the Dokki seat," said Abu Shoqa. Abu Shoqa indicated that MPs needed greater debates about the two rulings to make sure that there is no contradiction between the two of them. "This led to some delay, but the committee's report on El-Shobaki's appeal will be discussed in line with the constitution," said Abu Shoqa, adding that "the committee is in complete observation of Article 107 of the constitution which gives the Court of Cassation the final say on appeals filed against the results of the election of MPs." "This article has made parliament no longer 'the master of its own decisions' and we are keen to observe this principle," said Abu Shoqa. Mansour was announced in January as the elected deputy for the Dokki district. He is the son of outspoken MP and lawyer Mortada Mansour, and was a candidate for the liberal Free Egyptians Party.
