Before adjourning for its summer recess, the People's Assembly passed a controversial law aimed at regulating political parties. Gamal Essam El-Din reports On Monday -- the day before adjourning for its final summer recess -- the People's Assembly approved a series of controversial amendments to the political parties law. When it first came up for debate in the Shura Council two weeks ago, the opposition slammed the law as "a major blow to political life". The Wafd and Tagammu parties even threatened to organise public demonstrations in front of parliament in protest. The Wafd Party backed down when Parliamentary Speaker Fathi Sorour promised that the assembly's legislative and parliamentary committee would re- examine the law in light of making it more "politically appealing to the opposition". That did not quite take place. The law -- the last of six pieces of political legislation that were rammed through parliament over the past three weeks -- cuts to the core of Egypt's political and partisan life. For one, it revokes some of the conditions governing party politics, including stipulations that parties not contradict principles of Islamic Shari'a (law) or the ideals of the 23 July 1952 Revolution. It also annulled conditions forcing parties to conform to concepts of national unity, social peace and the so-called socialist gains of the 1952 Revolution. By eliminating these stipulations, said People's Assembly Affairs Minister Kamal El-Shazli, the new law successfully reflects the changes that have taken place over the years in Egypt, with a goal towards stimulating the nation's political life. Critics, however, were more concerned with the new law's restrictions. Mounir Fakhri Abdel-Nour, spokesman for the liberal Wafd Party, called the law's stipulation that any new political party must represent a "new addition" to political life a major obstacle that could be used by the ruling party to ban the formation of many a new party. The previous law had mandated that new parties' platforms should be "distinct" from existing ones. Ghad Party Chairman Ayman Nour -- currently on trial on charges of having forged thousands of the applications he used to get his party licensed -- said the Ghad Party had experienced significant problems related to this very clause. The party was forced to modify its platform three times as it attempted to convince the political parties committee that its platform was "really distinct from already existing parties," Nour said. Nour's forgery case actually played a role in the re-drafting of another of the law's articles, which was amended to make it necessary for would-be parties to obtain 1,000 signatures, rather than the currently stipulated 50. The amendment also mandates that the 1000 signatures belong to people in at least 10 different governorates. El-Shazli said the stipulation was important because it ensured that emerging parties were both serious, and based on far-reaching levels of public support. The new amendment also stipulates that party applications must be corroborated with documents detailing their sources of funding. Foreign funding is entirely banned. Another of the new law's controversial articles states that existing parties will no longer be entitled to issue more than two newspapers. "These two newspapers must primarily reflect the party's ideology, policies and activities." El-Shazli indicated that this restriction was necessary to prevent some parties from selling or renting their previously unlimited number of press licenses to outlawed organisations like the Muslim Brotherhood. The article that inspired the most ire, however, dealt with the Political Parties Committee, the body solely authorised to regulate and license parties. The opposition strongly objected to both the committee's make-up and the new powers it was given. They were unanimous in their long- standing demand that the committee be dismantled altogether, and that political parties be dealt with as NGOs. The law increased the number of committee members from seven to nine. These will include the ministers of interior and people's assembly affairs, as well as three former judges and three independent public figures. This, according to leftist firebrand El-Badri Farghali, means the committee will continue to be dominated by officials from the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP). The committee's chairman, Safwat El-Sherif, is also the secretary-general of the NDP. The People's Assembly affairs minister, Kamal El-Shazli, is the NDP's assistant secretary- general; the interior minister is a leading NDP figure. "Why shouldn't this committee also include two members representing opposition parties," Farghali asked. El-Shazli's response was that the committee chairman and the ministers of interior and People's Assembly affairs were involved in the committee as political figures more than leading NDP officials. "These three figures are also balanced by the fact that the committee includes three independent public figures and three former judges," El-Shazli said. The opposition's complaint also centered on the law providing the committee with sweeping powers, including the right to freeze a party's activities if the party itself, or one of its leading members, begins to espouse principles differing from the original party line, or if the committee decides that freezing the party is in the national interest. Abul-Ezz El-Hariri, another leftist firebrand, argued that the amendment gives the committee a highly dangerous tool for freezing parties at its pleasure. "A party member who is found in breach of the party's principles must be disciplined by the party's disciplinary committee rather than by the Political Parties Committee," El-Hariri said, alluding to the fact that when some NDP members were found to be drug- traffickers, this led to their dismissal from the party's ranks rather than to the freezing of the NDP as a whole. The new law also authorises the committee to ascertain that political parties are pursuing "democratic practices" and the "national interest". If a party was found to be breaching this, the committee will refer the matter to the Socialist Prosecutor-General (SPG) for investigation. The SPG can then decide to refer the party as a whole to trial before the so-called Parties Court (which is affiliated to the Supreme Administrative Court). This week, the Political Parties Committee approved the formation of a new party by the name of the "Peace Democratic Party". Its founder, Ahmed El-Fadaly, is chairman of the Young Muslims Society. On Saturday, the Parties Court approved the formation of the "Egypt Youth" Party, thus reversing an earlier order by the Political Parties Committee rejecting this party. The court said the committee should have approved the party because its platform does differ from those of other existing parties. This brings the total number of licensed parties in Egypt to 21.
