Split loyalties

Independent MPs have introduced bills to bar 'uneducated' citizens and those with 'dual-nationality' from running in general elections. Gamal Essam El-Din reports
Members of the People's Assembly who hold two passports are facing a new threat. Despite the summer recess, three independent MPs presented parliament with three draft bills two weeks ago which aim to revamp the political rights law of 1956. The three new bills, if passed, will bar "dual- nationality" and "uneducated" citizens from contesting general elections. The bills should be added to two bills submitted earlier, which also aim to amend the law regulating the exercise of political rights.
According to Mohamed El- Badrashini, an independent MP with Nasserist sympathies, "it is evident that the issue of dual-nationality figured prominently in last year's parliamentary elections. In these elections, some candidates who have dual-nationality managed to win seats in parliament. Although their membership was declared null and void by the Administrative Court, they and their supporters in the press, and in some legal circles, insisted that the law on the exercise of political rights does not bar citizens with dual-nationality from contesting elections."
For this reason, El- Badrashini has suggested a legislative amendment in the form of a new article that clearly states that citizens with dual-nationality are barred from contesting general elections.
An explanatory note attached to El-Badrashini's bill argues that "nationality is a political and legal relationship between citizens and the state." It goes on to say, "the two parties are tied by the bonds of this relationship. Citizens should have complete loyalty to the state and, in return, the state must bestow on these citizens a number of privileges, especially protection against foreign aggression."
The three bills will require candidates to have full Egyptian nationality, and Egyptian nationality alone, to be eligible to run in general elections. "This means that they not only have Egyptian nationality, but they also must be born to Egyptian parents," El-Badrashini said. The existing law merely requires a candidate to have an Egyptian father.
Alexandria's MP, Kamal Ahmed, also with Nasserist sympathies, believes that "dual-nationality means dual loyalty." Ahmed's bill states that foreigners awarded Egyptian nationality are allowed to contest general elections 10 years (rather than the existing five years) after acquiring Egyptian nationality.
The Assembly includes three businessman-deputies who allegedly have dual- nationality: Rami Lakah (Egyptian-French) for Cairo's Ezbekiya district, Mohamed Saleh (Egyptian- German) in Daqahliya governorates Talkha district and Talaat Mitawie (Egyptian- American) in Daqahliya's Bilqas district. The three were barred by the Administrative Court from running in elections but they filed appeals with the Urgent Matters Court to stay the execution of the Administrative Court's orders, win time and contest elections. There are also unconfirmed rumours that four other deputies have dual-nationality. They are Economy Minister Youssef Boutros Ghali (Egyptian- American), Housing Minister Ibrahim Soliman (Egyptian- Canadian), and businessmen Mohamed Abul-Enein (Egyptian-Italian) and Mounir Fakhri Abdel-Nour (Egyptian-French).
El-Oleimi's bill aims to bar uneducated candidates from running in general elections. The law in force stipulates that candidates must be able to read and write. "This is flawed language and several candidates managed to dodge this requirement," El-Oleimi said. "The proposed amendment requires a candidate to have a certificate from the Education Ministry stating that he/she successfully passed primary education at least," El-Oleimi said. The Assembly is said to include one "illiterate" deputy. He was barred by the Administrative Court from running in elections but resorted to the technicality of filing an appeal with the Urgent Matters Court.
Surprisingly, the legislative amendments espoused by the three independent MPs are supported by Mohamed Mahmoud Ali Hassan, majority leader of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP). Hassan believes that "as long as the Egyptian army requires that conscripts be 100 per cent Egyptian, the Egyptian parliament must equally require that its deputies are 100 per cent Egyptian." Hassan vowed to submit his own version of a legislative amendment in the coming parliamentary session which will also bar dual-nationality citizens from running in general elections.
In addition to the three proposed amendments, two other bills were submitted to parliament earlier. The first, submitted in the name of all opposition parties by Khaled Mohieddin, leader of the leftist Tagammu Party, has won the approval of the Assembly's Proposals and Complaints Committee. The bill, which still has to be discussed by the Legislative and Constitutional Affairs Committee, makes the Supreme Judicial Council, rather than the Interior Ministry, responsible for supervising elections.
The second bill, submitted by independent MP Mohamed Khalil Qeweita, bars independent candidates from joining political parties after winning parliamentary seats. "If necessary, this should not happen until two years after acquiring parliamentary membership," Qeweita's bill says. In Qeweita's words, "I was outraged by the action of those who came to be known as NDP-independents (NDP members who ran independently and re-joined the NDP ranks after winning). These deputies were elected by citizens as independents but, in violation of all political ethics, they decided to re-join the NDP ranks," Qeweita said. Qeweita, once an NDP deputy, contested last year's elections as an independent. He told Al-Ahram Weekly that "being an NDP deputy was a big mistake and a great shame."
The Assembly's Proposals and Complaints Committee is generally believed to debate bills under the NDP's stiff instruction that only government-sponsored bills should win Assembly approval.
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