After winning last week's referendum by a landslide, the ruling NDP is preparing for two new battles: the Shura Council elections and a controversial legislative programme. Gamal Essam El-Din reports Following the 26 March referendum, the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) is gearing itself up for Shura Council mid-term elections scheduled for June. The council's current session ends on 24 April, after which mid-term elections will be conducted to fill 88 seats -- a third of the total. To comply with newly amended Article 88 of the constitution, the elections will be held in a single day. The last two elections, in 2001 and 2004, were organised in three stages under full judicial supervision. With opposition parties and the Muslim Brotherhood boycotting the polls, the NDP swept the board. According to Shura Council speaker and NDP secretary-general Safwat El-Sherif, candidates will be able to register for the elections starting the second week of May. Opposition parties are widely expected to boycott the poll though Rifaat El-Said, chairman of the leftist Tagammu Party, told Al-Ahram Weekly that "participation in the elections will be left to the individual decision of members". "The party has little faith in the Shura elections and contesting them is beyond the financial resources of Tagammu." El-Said, an appointed member of Shura Council, argued that, "even after the recent constitutional amendments gave it some legislative powers, the council remains ineffective. It does not constitute an effective second house in a well-functioning bicameral system." The two other major opposition parties, the liberal Wafd and Nasserists, have not contested Shura seats since the council was founded in 1980 and this year is unlikely to be an exception. Fouad Badrawi, a prominent Wafd member, told the Weekly that, "Wafd believes the Shura Council is a talking shop and does not justify the costs involved in its running." The only challenge facing the NDP, then, will come from the banned Muslim Brotherhood. Despite a four-month crackdown in which many of its leading members have been arrested, the Brotherhood appears determined to contest the poll. Abdel-Moneim Abul-Fotouh, a leading Brotherhood member, told the Weekly that, "Shura elections are an opportunity to show we are a non-violent group determined to be part of the legitimate political process." The Brotherhood will find it difficult to raise its usual election slogan, "Islam is the solution", which clearly runs counter to amended Article 5 of the constitution banning parties based on religion. The NDP also faces a battle over its legislative programme. The newly amended Article 88 of the constitution requires revision of the 1956 law on the exercise of political rights under which elections are conducted. Moufid Shehab, minister of state for parliamentary and legal affairs, says the 1956 law will be redrafted to stipulate that elections be conducted in a single day under the supervision of a "supreme commission characterised by independence and impartiality". Many NDP members believe the revised law will also involve a switch from individual candidacy to a slate system. "Under a slate system legal parties will have a better chance of increasing their representation in parliament and will make it possible to reserve a fixed quota of seats for women," says Mohamed Ragab, the NDP's spokesman in the Shura Council. Changes to Article 88 of the constitution were among the most controversial of the recent amendments, with the opposition voicing doubts over the impartiality of the committee that will replace full judicial supervision of the poll. "Our experience with the commissions that took charge of supervising the 2005 presidential and parliamentary elections was dismal," says El-Said. "These commissions will never guarantee the integrity of elections." Another focus of controversy will be the anti- terror legislation heralded by changes to Article 179. The new law is expected to give the president sweeping powers that may well undermine guarantees of freedom contained in articles 41, 44 and 45. Shehab has indicated the draft law will be ready within six months. The commission entrusted with drafting the legislation met with the People's Assembly Legislative Committee Chairwoman Amal Othman on Monday to lay down the main guidelines of the law. The commission is expected to criminalise the building of mosques without prior approval of the Ministry of Waqf (religious endowments) and place mosque preachers under strict scrutiny. "People wishing to work as preachers should pass a number of tests before being considered qualified," said Othman. The new law will also regulate the forms of cooperation between Egypt and international and regional organisations in fighting terrorism. It will make it a terrorist crime to donate money to organisations suspected of having links with terrorist groups and give the police forces sweeping powers to detain suspected terrorists. The law will also give defendants the right to inform relatives where they are detained as well as access to regular medical treatment. In a surprise step, President Hosni Mubarak last week ordered the government to change the military tribunals law to allow defendants the right to appeal the rulings of military courts. Currently, only the president can revoke the rulings of military courts. Mubarak's decision appears to have come in response to criticisms levelled at the new text of Article 179 which empowers the president of the republic to refer terrorist crimes to any of the judicial authorities ordained by the constitution, including the military courts. It seems unlikely, though, to allay concerns. Human rights activist Mohamed Zare' told the Weekly : "I'm still very pessimistic about Article 179 and the new anti-terror law, both of which make it constitutional for the president to refer civilians to military courts... the president usually makes use of military courts to put his political opponents -- rather than terrorists -- on trial without any guarantee they will receive a fair hearing."
