The People's Assembly discusses today a legislative amendment to prevent Mubarak era cronies from contesting Egypt's highest office, writes Gamal Essam El-Din Egypt's lower house of parliament, the People's Assembly, is dedicating today's session to discuss a proposed amendment aimed at banning all leading members of ousted president Hosni Mubarak's ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) and close aides from contesting the presidential elections. The amendment was proposed only after former vice president and chief of General Intelligence Omar Suleiman decided to join the presidential race. Saad El-Katatni, the parliamentary speaker and former secretary-general of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), has put a number of proposals to a vote at the end of yesterday's session. The first proposal was submitted by the FJP's spokesman Hussein Ibrahim. "Amending the 1956 law on the exercise of political rights is necessary to prevent Mubarak's close aides and former NDP leaders -- such as members of the NDP's politburo, secretariat-general and the Policies Committee which was led by Mubarak's son Gamal -- from contesting the presidential elections," Ibrahim said. Ibrahim's proposal was approved by the majority of members at the People's Assembly. However, El-Katatni decided to put all the proposals before the Proposals and Legislative and Constitutional Affairs Committee. The proposed amendments will be discussed before a plenary session of the assembly today at 12.30pm. Essam Sultan, the parliamentary spokesman of the Islamist Wasat Party, said he would give up his proposed amendments to the 2011 law on prohibiting corrupt officials from standing in elections in favour of the FJP's law on amending the political rights law. The amendments proposed by Sultan were rejected by the majority of deputies who said they were tailored to prevent a certain figure from standing in elections and could be ruled as unconstitutional. The People's Assembly set aside an afternoon session yesterday to debate a draft law seeking to prevent close associates of ousted president Hosni Mubarak from competing in elections. The Legislative and Constitutional Affairs Committee had approved the draft with surprising speed leading to concerns that the law, proposed by Wasat spokesman Essam Sultan, may not have been thoroughly scrutinised and as a result could be unconstitutional. Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Mohamed Attia has already indicated the draft, which for a decade bars anyone who occupied a "leading position" in either the National Democratic Party or the office of the president during the 10 years prior to 11 February 2011, from becoming president, vice president or prime minister, could contradict Article 26 of the constitutional declaration. Addressing the assembly on Sunday Sultan made it clear that it was Mubarak's spy chief Omar Suleiman's bid for the presidency that the law hoped to curtail. The 25 January Revolution targeted the existing political system, he said, "and it would be illogical to allow figures who were central to that corrupt regime to stand in future presidential elections". The draft received cursory discussion at the Proposals and Complaints Committee on Monday morning and was referred to the Legislative and Constitutional Affairs Committee on the same day. By Tuesday morning, despite concerns over the constitutionality of the proposed legislation raised by the minister of justice and by independent members, the draft was rubber stamped by the committee. Though proposed by Sultan, a member of the moderate Islamist Wasat Party, many commentators believe the law was prepared by the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) and Sultan was selected to front it in an attempt to avoid accusations that the Brotherhood is tailoring legislation to serve partisan interests. That the Brotherhood has named a second presidential candidate after questions were raised over the eligibility of their first choice, multi-millionaire businessman Khairat El-Shater, has revealed just how desperate they are, despite 12 months of promises to the contrary, to control Egypt's highest office. Sultan's draft law, if approved, would allow them to pick off at least some opposition. In the Legislative and Constitutional Affairs Committee Justice Minister Adel Abdel-Hamid questioned the timing of the draft proposal and stressed that it would be up to the Supreme Constitutional Court to judge whether its attempt to prevent some people from exercising their political rights was constitutional. "I suspect," he said, "that the court will rule against the law", an opinion with which Deputy Minister of Justice for Legislative Affairs Omar El-Sherif concurred. Further underlining that whoever drafted the law was targeting Suleiman, Sultan demanded the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) immediately endorse the law. "If they fail to do so," he said, "it will send a clear message to the public that Suleiman is the general's candidate."
