The Shura Council is rushing to issue a new election law after the Administrative Court ruled on 6 March that parliamentary polls would have to be delayed until the Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC) ruled on amendments forced through the Shura Council after an earlier, controversial election law was sent back for revision. The Administrative Court's ruling that the amendments be referred back to the SCC took the Islamist-dominated Shura Council by surprise. Council Chairman Ahmed Fahmi claimed the council had fully implemented the SCC's earlier judgement on the required amendments. Now he says “the best option is to issue a new election legislation and refer it to the SCC rather than wait for the SCC to give its opinion on amendments which the Administrative Court has demanded.” Fahmi told parliamentary reporters on Monday that a new draft election law had been submitted by Mohamed Touson of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP). Touson is the chairman of the council's Legislative and Constitutional Affairs Committee. “I ordered a report on the draft election law be completed by Wednesday so the council can discuss it in the plenary session at the earliest opportunity, most likely on Sunday” said Fahmi. On Monday majority FJP deputies on the council's Legislative and Constitutional Affairs Committee agreed a new election law be drafted rather than introduce the required amendments to the law which the Shura Council passed on 21 February. Sobhi Saleh, deputy chairman of the council's Legislative and Constitutional Affairs Committee, said that “after the FJP realised the SCC could take up to four months to give a final verdict on changes to the original election law” delaying parliamentary polls until June they opted to draft a new law. “Once this law is approved by the Shura Council it will be referred to the SCC which must give a judgement within 45 days according to Article 177 of the constitution. This would allow a date to be set for parliamentary elections around the end of April or early May.” Deputy Justice Minister Omar Al-Sherif told the committee's Monday meeting that a new election law was necessary and it must comply with earlier SCC concerns over candidates' military service, redrawn electoral districts and judicial supervision of the voting of Egyptian expatriates. Two deputies of the Islamist Wasat Party decided to draft their own election law. Amr Farouk, the Wasat's parliamentary spokesman, claimed “waiting for the SCC to give its opinion about the current election law could postpone parliamentary polls to next year”. The council's minority non-Islamist deputies are unhappy about the move. Mohamed Mohieddin, representative of the liberal Ghad Al-Thawra Party, warned that “the submission of a new election law could easily trigger protests from opposition forces and the public”. “We should wait until all political forces agree on a new election law rather than steamrolling through a new one reflecting the viewpoint of one political force,” said Mohieddin. Ihab Al-Kharat, a member of the liberal Egyptian Socialist Democratic Party and chairman of the council's Human Rights Committee. “Even if we do issue a new election law,” he warned, “elections will take time because the issue of redrawing electoral districts must be tackled to make sure boundaries reflect population density in a fair way.” The National Salvation Front (NSF) had announced its boycott of parliamentary polls to protest against the election law. NSF spokesmen accused Muslim Brotherhood deputies of ramming the law through the council without taking the opposition's remarks into account. The NSF hailed the court order as a victory for its position. NSF member and constitutional law professor Gaber Nassar points out the Shura Council remains obliged to implement two SCC orders: that anyone who failed to perform military service for national security reasons be excluded as a candidate and that electoral districts be redrawn in a fair way. In the meantime, the Administrative Court is reviewing an appeal filed by political activist and businessman Ibrahim Kamel charging that current voter lists are flawed. “In some cases one name is repeated many times and thousands of names of dead voters have not been removed,” says Kamel. “A research team that reviewed voter lists estimated that between nine and 13 million names are wrongly included.”
