CAIRO: The Shoura Council (Upper House of Parliament) discussed on Saturday plans to set up a committee, to be renewed every three years, which will be in charge of supervising elections in Egypt, and to penalize any political activity based on religion, according to Diaa Rashwan, a political analyst with Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies. The two topics are negotiated under the political rights law. The new law will implement changes made recently to Articles 88 and five of the constitution. Rashwan told The Daily Star Egypt that the government offered the Shoura Council a finalized draft law. The government has no intention of listening to any of the opposition voices that are trying to fix what the latest constitutional amendments have ruined, Rashwan said. He added that the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) has rushed the presentation of the new law, ignoring the opinions of the powerful political parties. Anwar Rasslan, member of the legislative committee of the Shoura council, told The Daily Star Egypt that the council did not start its public discussions yet. The discussion session that took place was only restricted to members of the council s legislative committee. And the sessions are always confidential, Rasslan added. Commenting on Article 88, which was widely criticized for shrinking the judicialry's supervisory role over elections, Mohamed Khalil Kwaitah, an MP affiliated with the NDP, told The Daily Star Egypt that the elections supervising committee will include judges and public figures who will be carefully chosen. According to Kwaitah, this committee system is found in India, which he described as the mother of democracy in the world. Rashwan, however, begs to differ. He says that the changes to the controversial article increased the role of the government in controlling elections, since only the names nominated by the government will have a role in supervision. Sobhy Saleh, an MP affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, told The Daily Star Egypt that he is "totally against the cancellation of the judicial supervision of elections. The change made to Article 88 was a big blow to political life in Egypt, Saleh said. He added that the formation of the elections supervising committee with unrestricted authority will mean that rigging elections will become legal and immunized. Concerning the change in Article five, which prohibits political activity based in religion Rashwan believes that the government has put itself in a predicament by changing it just for the sake of clamping down on the Brotherhood. Rashwan questioned whether, according to this amended constitutional article, President Mubarak s speech given to mark the last Prophet Mohamed birthday ceremony that took place a month ago, would be considered a religious activity. We also have a religious committee in the People s Assembly and President Mubarak is the one who appoints the leading cleric of Sunni Islam, Sheikh Al-Azhar and Egypt's Coptic Pope. Aren t all these considered mixing the political role of the president with religion? Rashwan asked. On the other hand, Kwaitah said that those procedures have nothing to do with the formation of political entity on a religious basis. We do not want religion to be the basis of political activity because if we allowed such a thing we could end up having a Sunni political party, a Shia political party, and a Christian political party, which will all engage in disputes that will distract the country from the development process, Kwaitah said. Rashwan suggested that article five should have been changed to indicate that no discrimination should take place between citizens on the basis of their religion. I believe that by prohibiting political activities based on religion, the government wants to terminate the power of a certain political group that has wide support among the people and is capable of defeating NDP candidates in elections, Saleh said. Article five has been changed just for our sake, he added. Gamal Eid, executive director of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, told The Daily Star Egypt that although the new law appears to be giving more freedom for the practice of political activity in Egypt, it is actually meant to curtail it. Rashwan also said that the PA's legislative committee had indicated in a statement that, if approved, the new law will not be final and will be modified later. What type of law is that if the government announces it will change before it is formed in the first place? Rashwan asked.
