The Supreme Administrative Court dealt the NDP a stunning blow by ordering that the 25 December by-elections in 17 districts be confined to those who ran in 2000. Gamal Essam El-Din reports A Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) ruling revoking parliamentary by-elections scheduled for 17 districts on 25 December shocked senior National Democratic Party (NDP) leaders. The court declared that the only way the by-elections -- which are meant to fill seats left vacant by 17 draft-dodging NDP MPs (16 from the People's Assembly and one from the Shura Council) -- could be considered legitimate and constitutional would be for "the race in these districts to be confined to those who ran in the 2000 parliamentary elections". The ruling ruined the ruling party's plans to field new candidates in place of those who had been kicked out of the assembly for not performing their military service. The NDP had tried to circumvent the rule stipulating that by-elections had to be confined to those candidates who previously ran, by forcing their draft-dodging MPs to resign rather than be officially stripped of their membership by the assembly. The court, however, did not allow the ruse to pass. "The resignation of the draft- dodging MPs would have been a legitimate option if their parliamentary membership had still been valid. Their membership, however, had actually been invalid since 2000," the SAC said. As a result, the court said, the interior minister's decision to organise by- elections in the draft-dodging MPs' 17 districts must be revoked, and the contest confined to those who ran in 2000. The court's ruling represented a stunning victory for the opposition, and especially the liberal-oriented Wafd Party. The party had already managed to get a Beni Suef Administrative Justice Court (AJC) to revoke the interior minister's decision to open the door for nominations of new candidates in two Beni Suef districts (Ahnasia and El- Fashn). Although the interior minister responded by filing a counter-appeal with the SAC, it was rejected on Monday. The higher court's decision regarding all the other districts also represented a strong vote of confidence in the AJC's initial decision. Unlike the AJC, said Ibrahim El-Nimiki, a former deputy chairman of parliament's legislative committee, the SAC's rulings are comprehensive. "AJC rulings are confined to their respective governorates and can be overturned by the SAC. The SAC, however, is like the Supreme Constitutional Court in the sense that its rulings are binding and must be implemented immediately because they establish principles that must be followed by all state authorities," El-Nimiki said. The court's ruling, meanwhile, will not be applied in the six districts whose seats were left vacant by NDP MPs who passed away, or in the case of the by-election which will be held to replace Abdallah Tayel, the former chairman of parliament's economic committee who was convicted of fraud and ended up being kicked out of the assembly. The ruling effectively dampened the NDP's much-ballyhooed electoral college system of choosing new candidates to run in the by-elections since, according to El- Nimiki, the party no longer "has the right to field any candidates in the 17 districts". After the AJC's initial ruling, opposition and independent observers had warned the party that its "old-guard tactics of pressuring its 17 draft-dodging MPs to resign (in return for nominating their relatives), rather than allowing them to be officially stripped of their seats by the People's Assembly and Shura Council", would severely tarnish the party's image. Now, El-Nimiki said, "not only has the NDP been accused of fielding unqualified candidates (such as draft- dodgers and loan defaulters), the party has also been found guilty of circumventing constitutional and legal principles in order to maintain its monopoly on political life." According to the opposition, the SAC ruling was a blow to both the party's old guard -- especially its Secretary-General Safwat El-Sherif and his assistant Kamal El-Shazli, who orchestrated the resignation scenario -- as well as the NDP's "so-called future generation which agreed to toe the old guard's line irrespective of the fact that the SAC might abolish all of their nominations", El- Nimiki said. NDP insiders were confident, however, that the party's old guard would now do their best to guarantee that the SAC ruling does not affect the party's chances to regain those same 17 districts' seats. "The party might try negotiating with the candidates who ran in 2000 as independents, offering them major support in exchange for promises that they would join the party once they won," said an NDP insider, on condition of anonymity. The opposition now believes that -- unless the NDP uses the Interior Ministry to support independent candidates with whom it will make deals -- their candidates might have a good chance of winning the by- election seats. Some of the seats left vacant by deputies who passed away, meanwhile, will undoubtedly provoke heated contests. In Alexandria's Montazah district, the NDP's Ali Seif, a construction magnate, will be going up against two Muslim Brotherhood heavyweights -- Ibrahim Abdel-Malek and Khaled El-Zaafarani. In Giza's Kerdasah district, prominent TV announcer Farida El-Zommor was nominated by the NDP, despite the fact that the prosecutor-general banned her from travelling abroad after her businessman husband was charged with fraudulently obtaining massive bank loans. El-Zommor's competition includes prominent lawyer Ahmed Nasser, a former Wafd Party MP. The other districts whose seats were left vacant by MPs who passed away include Berket Al-Sab' (Menoufiya), Naga Hamadi (Qena), Talkha (Daqahliyya) and Girga (Sohag). Meanwhile, in Menoufiya's Tala district (where the jailed Tayel was from), the new NDP candidate Ahmed Raslan faces intense competition from Talaat El-Sadat and Maged Abdel-Ghaffar. El-Sadat, a relative of late President Anwar El-Sadat, is one of several contenders vying for the chairmanship of the Liberal Party, while Abdel- Ghaffar is a retired police officer from a wealthy family.
