The ruling military junta has agreed to legislative changes that seek to democratise political life, reports Gamal Essam El-Din Most political forces have welcomed the government's decision to amend key laws in an attempt to promote democratic competition ahead of parliamentary elections. On 11 August, government spokesman Mohamed Hegazi said the cabinet had started "formulating laws and mechanisms" to replace the emergency law. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), Egypt's de facto ruler since Hosni Mubarak's ouster on 11 February, has agreed that emergency measures -- which give the police sweeping powers to detain citizens indefinitely without charge -- must be repealed before the parliamentary poll. The government also decided to change the 1977 political parties law yet again, dropping the number of signatures groups seeking to form political parties are required to collect from 5,000 to 1,000. The change, said Deputy Prime Minister Ali Al-Silmi, was intended to help forces created by the 25 January Revolution to form parties and compete in elections. It returns the number of required signatures to that needed before Mubarak's ouster, annulling the increase earlier decreed by the SCAF. At the time the SCAF's decision had angered young activists who had hoped it would be easier to form political parties following Mubarak's fall. Thirteen new political parties have been created since 30 March. Amr Hamzawy, a liberal political activist, welcomed the move. He expects an increase in the number of political parties ahead of elections. Changes to laws regulating elections to the People's Assembly and the Shura Council have also been approved by the SCAF. In July the SCAF had announced that half the seats in both houses would be decided via a party list system, the other half by individual candidacy. The announcement angered political groups, most notably the Democratic Alliance of Political Parties (DAPP), which includes the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party and the liberal-oriented Wafd. DAPP had demanded that individual candidacy be entirely replaced by party slates. Under the latest changes two thirds of seats will now be contested by candidates on party lists. Individual candidacy has been blamed for the proliferation of electoral fraud, vote buying and intimidation under the deposed regime. "Maintaining the system would have seen the return to parliament of the officials and corrupt businessmen who dominated Mubarak's National Democratic Party (NDP)," says Ghad Party leader Ayman Nour. "To eliminate the individual candidacy system completely," said El-Silmi, "risks a challenge of the grounds of constitutionality since an exclusively party list system could be deemed biased towards independent candidates." "Scrapping individual candidacy altogether will only serve the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party," argues an SCAF source. "Civilian political forces should realise that getting rid of the individual candidacy system is not in their interest. The next parliament should include a diversity of political forces and this can never be guaranteed if individual candidacy is abolished." "Fears that maintaining individual candidacy will help bring back corrupt deputies from Mubarak's defunct ruling National Democratic Party [NDP] are exaggerated," said the source. "Nor should we ignore the fact that many NDP members were competent figures untainted by corruption." But commentators and activists alike are concerned that mixing the two systems will serve only to confuse voters. "When voters go to the polling station they will be faced with two lists of candidates for the People's Assembly and two for the Shura Council," says Nour. "The first list will include candidates running as individuals and the second those running on a party ticket. It is likely to cause a great deal of confusion in voting booths." SCAF's legislative adviser Mamdouh Shahin has said that the People's Assembly elections will see 504 deputies returned. Together with the 10 deputies that the president is allowed to appoint, this makes a total of 514, up from 454 in the last People's Assembly. Membership of the Shura Council will increase from 264 to 390, a third of them presidential appointees. The minimum age for People's Assembly candidates is to be reduced from 30 to 25, while Shura Council candidates must be 35 or more. Preparations for elections to the two houses of parliament will begin at the end of September, says Shahin. A Higher Electoral Commission (HEC), whose members will be drawn from the judiciary, will take full control of the elections. It will meet on 18 September to begin preparing for Egypt's first post-25th January Revolution's parliamentary election. It is expected to be staggered over three stages, with 15 days between the polling in designated governorates.
