New legislation regulating political parties and the exercise of political rights has exacerbated tension between the regime and its opponents, reports Gihan Shahine When, on Monday, the Shura Council accepted amendments suggested by the opposition to the new law governing political parties the week-long controversy that had dogged the bill appeared to be cooling off. The Wafd responded to the Shura Council move by cancelling a protest it had planned the following day with the leftist Tagammu Party. Tagammu, however, went ahead with the protest in front of the Peoples Assembly, and was soon joined by members of Al-Ghad amid growing rumours the Legislative Committee would ignore any Shura Council recommendations. Around 150 protestors were prevented by almost three times as many anti- riot police from handing a petition to Peoples Assembly Speaker Fathi Sorour demanding an end to Egypt's 24-year state of emergency and state control of political parties. Amended legislation governing the exercise of political rights, passed by parliament on 23 June, had been similarly dogged by controversy, and the same fate appears to wait for draft legislation regulating the performance of both the People's Assembly and the Shura Council. The new laws, widely trailed by the state as part of a new wave of democratic reform, seem to have rubbed everyone the wrong way. On Sunday journalists protested against a clause in the new law on political rights claiming it "blatantly violates freedom of expression" and constitutes "a death blow to democratic reform". The clause in question fixes a minimum six - months custodial sentence and a LE1,000-5,000 fine on journalists who publish "false news" that impacts on the results of elections. The Judges' Club had earlier issued a statement lambasting the same law as "unconstitutional", saying it would "encourage fraud" rather than ensure free and fair elections. Critics insist the new laws, rather than opening up the political arena impose more restrictions and will result in a tightening of the ruling National Democratic Party's stranglehold over political life. The role allotted to the Political Parties Committee proved particularly contentious. According to the draft law the committee will comprise the chairman of the Shura Council, who is also NDP secretary- general, the ministers of interior and People's Assembly affairs, the latter NDP assistant secretary-general, and three former judges alongside three independent public figures to be selected by the president. The committee will have the right to approve or to freeze parties. Approval will require the support of at least seven of the nine committee members, and the applicants must demonstrate that the agenda of the new party represents "an addition to political life". The Shura Council had amended this to "a distinct agenda", though at the time of going to press it was unclear which phrase would be adopted. The former, says Amr El-Choubki of the Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, is sufficiently "elastic that it can easily be manipulated to stop the licensing of new parties". The law further complicates the emergence of new parties by stipulating that applicants must obtain 1,000 signatures from 10 different governorates rather than the 50 currently required. Nor are existing parties immune from the provisions of the new bill which, says Wafd MP Fouad Badrawi, "represents blatant interference" into the internal affairs of parties since the Political Party Committee can freeze the activities of parties should "the party, or one of its members, espouse principles different from the original party line". Parties will face the same fate should their agendas be judged by the committee to contradict with the country's national interests, social peace and unity, or with the principles of democracy or the constitution. Such vague phrasing, says El-Choubki, is an invitation to abuse. While the Shura Council had removed the phrase referring to democracy, and amended another clause concerning party finances, it was unclear at press time whether the recommendations would be incorporated in the final draft. Many in the opposition argue that the committee should itself be scrapped. According to El-Choubki "obtaining a licence from the committee forces a bureaucratic dynamic onto parties leaving them little space to interact with the street and formulate manifestos that will serve the public interest." Amendments to the new political rights law, passed by parliament last week, create, for the first time, a committee to oversee parliamentary and Shura Council elections. The committee will supervise the overall electoral process, from ratifying voter registers and defining constituencies to determining campaign regulations and announcing the final results. While the NDP argues that the committee is there to ensure that elections are free its critics insist that the very structure of the committee opens the door wide to even more irregularities and vote-rigging. "The committee is dominated by members of the NDP and the executive, the very people who have been responsible for electoral irregularities in the past," says Hussein Abdel-Razeq, of the Tagammu Party. The committee, according to the law, will be formed by presidential decree and chaired by the minister of justice who, say the opposition, as a member of the government and of the NDP is hardly a neutral figure. He will preside over three senior judges, three former senior judges, an Interior Ministry representative and six "distinguished" independent members to be selected by the People's Assembly and the Shura Council. Given that the NDP dominates both the People's Assembly and the Shura Council "it goes without saying that the committee's independent figures will be pro- regime," says Abdel-Razeq. The opposition is frustrated with the manner in which their suggestions, made during a series of meetings with the NDP in April, have been all but ignored. Alternative draft laws by Tagammu, Wafd and the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights have all called for full judicial oversight of elections. Judges, who have threatened to boycott the upcoming elections, have also protested against the inclusion of non-judicial figures in the committee, arguing that it is "unconstitutional". The amended law does provide some safeguards against electoral irregularities, obliging voters to sign their names and provide a fingerprint when casting ballots in an attempt to prevent the casting of multi- votes, and also stipulates that those who deliberately boycott the ballot will be fined LE100. Abdel-Razeq, however, is not alone in shrugging off such amendments as "ineffective as long as the monitoring of elections remains in the hands of the executive".
