A politically factious agenda awaits Egypt's newly-elected president, with two new laws —one aimed at regulating parliamentary elections, the other the performance of the House of Representatives — likely to be Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi's first major headache. The two draft laws have already triggered the ire of political forces. The constitution, passed on 18 January, specified that preparations for Egypt's parliamentary polls must begin within six months, i.e. by 18 July, leaving the new president little time to settle differences over the legislation. Drafts of the two laws were announced on 24 May. On Sunday the Department of Legislation and Fatwas, a division of the State Council, completed its revision of the texts. The following day they were referred to Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Transitional Justice Mohamed Amin Al-Mahdi and discussed by the cabinet. The 48 article House of Representatives law raises the number of parliamentary seats from 508 to 630. Article 3, says Magdi Al-Agati, chairman of the Department of Legislation and Fatwas, stipulates that 480 seats — 80 per cent of the total — be reserved for independent candidates, leaving just 120 seats for party-based MPs. Article 5 requires parties' lists of candidates to include a minimum of three women, three Copts and two representatives of farmers and workers. Article 6 seeks to prevent elected candidates from changing their designation once they have joined parliament. Any elected MP changing political designation can be stripped of parliamentary membership as long as two thirds of MPs approve the move. “A candidate elected as an independent should not be allowed to join a political party during the lifetime of the parliament,” Al-Agati explained. Under Hosni Mubarak independents, once elected, would immediately join the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) to swell its ranks. Article 7 stipulates that parliamentary candidates must be Egyptian nationals, be no less than 25, hold a basic education certificate and, where applicable, have performed military service. Article 11 prevents army, police and intelligence personnel from contesting parliamentary seats. The same ban applies to members of the Administrative Control Authority and members of the boards of public sector companies. Al-Mahdi told a press conference on Saturday that the eight-member committee, formed on 14 April by interim President Adli Mansour, reported a majority of political factions in favour of the bulk of parliamentary seats going to independent candidates. Yet the response of political parties to the draft law casts into doubt the veracity of the committee's findings. In a letter issued on Sunday several high-profile public figures — including Amr Moussa, who headed the 50-member committee which drafted the new constitution — joined with parties from across the political spectrum to denounce the allocation of 80 per cent of seats to independent candidates, and the adoption of closed party lists for the remaining 20 per cent. The draft law discriminates against political parties, argues leading member of the Revolution Continues Party Abdel-Ghaffar Shukr, “obstructing any hope of creating a flourishing parliamentary life with political parties at its centre”. The Tagammu Party's Rifaat Al-Said warns that the distribution of seats will allow wealthy businessmen to dominate parliament. According to Wafd Party Chairman Al-Sayed Al-Badawi the draft law undermines the emergence of a multi-party system. “It will take us back to the days of Mubarak when crony tycoons routinely mixed business with politics.” said Al-Badawi, who himself is a high-profile businessman. The individual candidacy system, Al-Badawi continued, will allow onetime officials of Mubarak's defunct ruling NDP to dominate the new parliament. Al-Badawi also condemned the adoption of closed party lists. “What this means in practice is that a list must win 50 per cent of votes per district for its candidates to join parliament. It is all or nothing. A list could garner the support of 49 per cent of the voters in a given district and still not return a single MP.” Al-Badawi wants to see the draft law amended to include a 50:50 division of seats between independent and party-based candidates, and the closed list system scrapped in favour of proportional representation. The Free Egyptians and Egyptian Social Democratic Parties also reject the draft. Mohamed Abul-Ghar, Chairman of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party, has threatened to boycott parliamentary polls should the law not be changed. Al-Ahram political analyst Amr Hashem Rabie believes revising the draft law to stipulate that two thirds of seats be elected via the individual candidacy system and one third via party lists would see it win consensus. He dismisses fears that the law will allow the return of either the Muslim Brotherhood or NDP stalwarts. “The Muslim Brotherhood has already been designated a terrorist group, and the new constitution bans political parties based on religious foundations. Leading officials of the NDP are barred from standing in elections by judicial order and though the ruling does not extend to former members who did not occupy senior political posts it will help prevent former NDP members from invading parliament.” Al-Mahdi does not accept that closed party lists hamper the creation of a balanced parliament. “When we sent the draft law to these parties they failed to respond with any constructive amendments,” he says. The draft law regulating parliamentary elections gives the Higher Election Committee (HEC) complete control over supervising the poll. Once a new parliament is elected, however, the HEC will be replaced by a National Elections Commission that take charge of all future ballots. The State Council, says Mahmoud Fawzi official spokesperson of the eight-member committee, was keen to ensure the law did not impose any kind of political disenfranchisement and “complied with the new constitution which states that citizens can only be prevented from exercising their political rights if there is a final judicial ruling against them”. On 8 May the Cairo Court for Urgent Matters ruled that leading officials of Mubarak's ruling NDP be barred from standing in elections. The new law, says Fawzi, “will only ban those found guilty of involvement in political corruption or tax evasion”. HEC orders will not be immune to appeal. Parliamentary candidates will be permitted to file complaints before administrative courts.
