The Presidential Elections Commission (PEC) is scheduled next week to begin the process of preparing for Egypt's first post-2014 Constitution presidential election. Before PEC meets 18 February, a new presidential election law must be officially issued by interim President Adli Mansour. On 9 February, a national dialogue over a newly proposed presidential election law came to an end. In letters addressed to Mansour Saturday and Sunday, several political factions and public figures recommended introducing numerous changes to the 59-article proposed law. According to Ali Awad, Mansour's constitutional and legal affairs advisor, “The deadline was set on 9 February to give the president's team of legal advisors enough time to take recommended changes into account before the law is officially issued by President Mansour on 17 February, or before the Presidential Election Commission (PEC) begins on the next day — 18 February — the process of preparing the final procedures for the presidential polls.” Awad told parliamentary correspondents this week that although political parties and some civil society organisations were exclusively invited to give their viewpoints on the presidential elections bill, he was surprised that “hundreds of ordinary citizens” joined the “dialogue”, sending the president “several proposed changes of the draft law”. Awad said “most of the recommendations focused on the necessity of re-amending Article 7 of the draft law that allows candidates and citizens to file appeals against PEC decisions.” In its current form, the article represents a radical change from 2012's law that elevated PEC decisions above judicial scrutiny. Awad said: “Most political forces, the majority of citizens and public figures agreed that allowing appeals in presidential elections is a dangerous development and could further shake the country's stability, especially in terms of delaying the announcement of the winning candidate for several days.” Awad said most political parties asked that “Article 7 be re-amended to prevent filing appeals against PEC orders”. Awad, however, admitted that other political parties and forces, especially liberal-oriented ones, heaped praise on Article 7's current form, insisting the “the right of filing appeals should be reserved to candidates and citizens alike, because this is a constitutional right.” “It is a big surprise to me that hosts of most satellite television channels do not want to re-amend Article 7, while ordinary citizens warn against opening the door to filing appeals,” said Awad. A study conducted by the liberal-oriented Dialogue Centre for Media and Political Studies said, “Demands for stripping candidates of the right of filing appeals are mostly motivated by political reasons.” “Those who have high hopes that a certain name will be elected as president do not want him to face appeals,” the study said. Informed sources told Al-Ahram Weekly that “Most of these who rejected the current form of Article 7, recommending that PEC orders be final and immune to appeal, belong to forces loyal to the ousted regime of former president Hosni Mubarak.” Mahmoud Nafadi, a spokesman for “Misr Baladi” (My Homeland Egypt) movement led by former Interior Minister Ahmed Gamaleddin and dominated by several NDP loyalists, argued that “PEC's members belong to the highest judicial authorities in Egypt — especially the High Constitutional Court and the Cassation Court — and as a result it is highly illogical that their orders come under scrutiny from lower judicial courts.” Shawki Al-Sayed, a high-profile lawyer who is widely considered a Mubarak regime loyalist, said: “As PEC's members are senior judges, their decisions must be considered final judicial rulings rather than simply administrative orders subject to scrutiny by the Supreme Administrative Court — or as currently proposed by the draft law.” Al-Sayed recalled that PEC's orders during 2012's presidential elections were made immune to appeal. “We all remember how the Muslim Brotherhood seized its control of that year's parliament to strongly reject opening the door for appeals against PEC's orders,” said Shawki, arguing further that “if there was a necessity for this in 2012, it still exists in 2014, especially as most Egyptians asked that presidential elections be held ahead of parliamentary polls in a bid to restore stability as soon as possible.” Commenting on the above, Awad explained that “There is a tendency to reach a common ground on this tricky issue, by allowing candidates and citizens to file appeals before PEC itself and only ahead of announcing the final results of the election.” “The appeals will be lodged with PEC itself and upon grounds that its members are themselves senior judges and that PEC give its final say on these appeals before announcing the final result of the presidential election,” said Awad. Awad explained that “when President Mansour recommended that candidates and citizens be granted the right to appeal PEC's decisions on presidential elections, he based this on the grounds that Article 210 of the new constitution allowed the right of filing appeals against the orders of the National Electoral Commission (NEC) which will take charge of supervising all post-2014 presidential and parliamentary elections in Egypt.” “But judicial authorities argue that PEC, which will supervise the first post-2014 Constitution presidential ballot, is not subject to Article 210.” Awad also indicated that most, if not all, political forces asked that Article 1 be re-amended to impose new conditions. “All argue that it is by no means enough that hopeful presidential candidates must be born to Egyptian parents and that they, along with their parents and spouse, must not have held dual nationality,” said Awad, adding that “all argue that any of a hopeful candidate's family members, including sons or daughters, must not hold dual nationality.” “It is highly dangerous for the candidate's daughters and sons hold a dual nationality because it simply means dual loyalty, not to mention that sons and daughters usually impact their fathers more than parents or spouse,” said the Dialogue Centre's study. Shawki said most of ousted President Mohamed Morsi's children — two sons and one daughter — hold “dual Egyptian-American” nationality. Awad revealed that political forces also recommended that “prospective candidates undergo a comprehensive medical check-up, that they submit a detailed statement of their wealth, and that they do not have any kind of criminal record, as three additional pre-conditions before they are officially registered as presidential candidates.” On the other hand, however, Awad indicated that PEC will do all it can to facilitate candidates collecting recommendations from citizens, not to mention that PEC will explain in detail whether candidates will have to get “the recommendation forms from PEC's headquarters, or whether they will be made available in each governorate to be used by citizens to give recommendations for their favourite candidates.” Awad also explained that political forces, especially leftist-oriented parties like Al-Tagammu and the Popular Current, want the law to give PEC more powers to exercise strict control on the funding of election campaigns. Meanwhile, the make-up of PEC's general secretariat has been finalised. Anwar Al-Assi, PEC's chairman and current acting president of the Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC), issued a decree 5 February stating that PEC's secretariat-general be led by SCC judge Hamdan Fahmi and formed of 13 senior judges hailing from appeals and administrative courts and prosecution authorities. In a public statement this week, Fahmi indicated that “the secretariat-general will be in charge of implementing PEC's orders and acting as a link between PEC and the outside world, including candidates, citizens, the media, and civil society organisations.” Fahmi added: “PEC is not scheduled to hold any meetings ahead of 18 February.” “The new presidential election law must be first officially issued by President Mansour so that PEC can meet and decide on the next steps of the presidential election, including drawing up a timetable for the ballot.” Fahmi also indicated that, “The process of updating voter lists will continue until 17 February or until the door of registration for presidential elections officially opens.” “This process includes removing the names of dead voters or those who joined the police or the army, adding the names of citizens who reached the age of 18, the names of police and army officers who reached retirement age, the names of army and police officers who resigned from office, citizens who are no longer stripped of exercising their political rights, and the names of those who got Egyptian nationality at least five years ago.” The above means that Field Marshal Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi must resign from office as minister of defence before 17 February — or next week — and have his name inserted on the voter list if he finally decides to run in the upcoming presidential election.
