The Shura Council's Committee on Constitutional and Legislative Affairs has approved, in principle, a draft law to add 32 new constituencies to elect 64 parliamentarians. Women only will have the right to nominate themselves in these constituencies for two legislative seasons (10 years) or more. The bill, an amendment to Act No. 38 of 1972 on the People's Assembly (Parliament), gives women the right to nominate themselves in the other 444-seat constituencies, in addition to the new constituencies.
The Shura Council Speaker Safwat al-Sherif said the bill comes within the framework of President Mubarak's electoral platform with regard to the empowerment of women politically. This comes at a time when a woman took the presidency of an Egyptian university for the first time. The draft law aims to change the community's culture to believe that women have a value and to ensure a minimum political participation for women.
Mufid Shehab, Minister of Legal Affairs and Parliamentary Councils, said the law was based on Article 62 of the Constitution, which had been amended to allocate parliamentary seats for women. Article 40 was stipulating that there should be equality without any sort of discrimination between men and women.
The ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) took a long time to prepare this bill. It studied many similar laws in other nations, which grants positive discrimination in favor of women. Article 62 of the Constitution was keen to achieve flexibility, as this point was left to the discretion of the legislator to make the right decision, Shehab said.
The law will be applied to the People's Assembly at the current stage and then to the Shura Council. The Shura Council has a high number of women, who had been appointed by the President of the Republic, unlike the People's Assembly, which has a low number of women. The President has the right to appoint ten members in the People's Assembly and one third of the Shura Council.
The draft law adds 32 constituencies to grant women 64 parliamentary seats in 28 governorates nationwide. Every governorate will have a constituency for women only, in addition to other constituencies in the densely populated governorates.
Shehab pointed out that the Ministry of Interior is currently preparing a study to re-shape the electoral constituencies. Law No. 206 of 1990 on constituencies will be amended after adding two new governorates in light of the amendments aimed to empower women.
According to Article 87 of the Constitution, 50% of the new 32 constituencies should be workers and farmers. The provisions of the Woman Law will be directly applied during the coming legislative seasons, with the possibility of adding another season or more to see whether women would be up to competition or not. If women managed to compete with men, this positive discrimination will be canceled, he added. The government referred the bill to the National Council for Women, which proposed to increase the seats allocating for women to more than 56. Therefore, the number increased to 64. The council also rejected enforcing the law for two parliamentary seasons only. On the other hand, the MPs unanimously approved the bill, but they were divided over the enforcement of the law for two legislative seasons or more. MP Farkhanda Hassan led the party siding with not defining a certain period for the enforcement of the law. She called on the government to apply the draft law to the Shura Council also and not only to the People's Assembly. Nagi el-Shihabi, leader of Al-Geel (Generation) Party, called for not limiting the law to two electoral seasons only. He called for adopting the slate system, under which candidates are required to run collectively on party lists for each constituency. Dr. Shawky al-Sayeed described the bill as "modest" compared to President Mubarak's electoral platform and the constitutional amendments. Chancellor Adel Kora said the law should be temporary to avoid any suspicion of unconstitutionality. Dr. Refaat al-Sayeed wondered why the bill has been proposed at this current time. This bill caused rumors that the parliament would be dissolved.
