SCAF's ratification of the disenfranchisement law has prevented a stand-off with parliament. Now all eyes are turned to the Supreme Constitutional Court, reports Gamal Essam El-Din The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) ratified the law on the exercise of political rights late on Monday, heading off a potential showdown with parliament. In a letter to the People's Assembly on Tuesday, SCAF head Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi said "the amendments of Law 73/1956 place new restrictions on the exercise of political rights�ê� [and] directly affect the conditions governing nomination in presidential elections and the law regulating them". "Because they strip some Egyptians from exercising their political rights without a judicial order," Tantawi continued, SCAF had referred the amendments to the Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC) only to be informed it was not within the SCC's purview to issue a judgement on the constitutionality of legislation before it was implemented. The changes to the 1956 law on the exercise of political rights which would prevent members of ousted President Hosni Mubarak's now defunct ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) from standing in presidential elections were rammed through parliament on 12 April. "It is inconceivable that Mubarak regime diehards be allowed to present themselves as candidates in the presidential elections," says Essam Sultan, the Wasat Party's deputy chairman. Sultan had initially proposed that the law on corrupting political life be changed but fears that the amendments would be judged unconstitutional forced a change of tack. Together with liberal MP Amr Hamzawy and Salafi Mamdouh Ismail, Sultan finally opted to press for changes to the 1956 law on the exercise of political rights. Though the amendments were criticised by the ministers of justice and parliamentary affairs they were passed by a majority of MPs. Ironically, Mubarak's former spy chief and vice president Omar Suleiman, whose presidential bid was one of the main targets of the amendments, was disqualified from standing for technical reasons. Sultan had urged SCAF to ratify the amendments before the scheduled 26 April announcement by the Presidential Elections Commission (PEC) of the official list of candidates. The amendments effectively bar the presidential bid of Ahmed Shafik, Mubarak's last prime minister. On Tuesday PEC announced that Shafik be prevented from standing. On the other hand, his campaign team said he would file an appeal against the changes. Only then would the case fall within the jurisdiction of the SCC, which might rule the amendments unconstitutional since they had prevented Shafik from exercising his political rights in the absence of a final judicial order. "If the SCC did rule that the amendments were unconstitutional it could invalidate the entire presidential election," says Mohamed El-Omda, deputy chairman of the People's Assembly's Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee. On 6 May the SCC is scheduled to begin hearing a petition questioning the constitutionality of parliamentary elections on the grounds that they discriminated against independent candidates. If the petition succeeds the two houses of parliament will be dissolved and new elections held.
