CAIRO: A number of punitive amendments to elections laws were announced by Egypt's interim ruling government, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) on Saturday, set to control election turn out, voting, and media coverage of elections. According to the new amendments, any person who use force, threats, or bribes to persuade a voter to cast a vote in an election or referendum will face up to LE 100,000 in fines and up to five years in prison, with a minimum sentencing of LE 10,000 and one year in prison. The decree also stated that anyone who broadcasts false news about elections, referendums or candidates would be subject to the same minimum and maximum sentencing. Furthermore, any political candidate who benefits from such bribery or corruption could face imprisonment and could be banned from running for public office for five years, according to the newly announced law. It also mandates that any eligible voter who fails to cast a ballot in an election or referendum, without a valid excuse, will be fined LE 500. There are no stipulations about what a “valid excuse” entails. The law also forbids any election slogans based on religion, gender or ethnicity. Any individual who uses such a slogan would be subject to three months in prison and a fine of LE 6,000 – LE 12, 000. The new laws come as an amendment to Law No. 73/1956, which concerns political rights in Egypt. “We have a penal law that exists already to punish these things. It is strange that they have reemphasized these crimes because the penalties already exist,” Mohamed Zaree, a human rights lawyer at the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies told Bikyamasr.com. “This could be used as a weapon against even honest candidates, because it is unclear how they will apply these laws. We have no criteria for what “fake information” is, for instance,” he went on. “Someone could state that elections were not free and fair, and face up to six months in jail, according to these laws,” he said. The SCAF also announced formally that it would scrap the fifth article of its election laws, and allow for all parliamentary votes to be based upon a party list system. The controversial fifth article initially reserved one third of the parliamentary vote for individual candidates. Many political parties had announced that they would boycott the election if the individual candidacy system were implemented, arguing that it would leave elections vulnerable to bribery and the corrupt leaders of the former President Hosni Mubarak regime. Political parties have also called for the implementation of a ban on members of Mubarak's formerly ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), to prevent members of the old regime from running for public office for the next ten years. Field Marshall Hussein Tantawi also announced that the SCAF would cover the costs of publicity for newly established youth-led political parties, and would help provide the parties with logistical support. The SCAF has faced increasing resentment, as Egyptians lose faith that the interim ruling government will truly transition to a democratically election civilian rule as they once pledged. Parliamentary elections for the lower house are set to begin on November 28, and will take place in three stages. The upper house elections will start their first stage on January 29 and finish on March 24. The new Parliament will adjourn on March 17, 2012. BM
