CAIRO: The Shoura Council (Upper House of Parliament) approved on Thursday the new political rights law, disregarding any of the opposition groups suggestions. The amendment calls for holding the People s Assembly and Shoura Council elections in one day under the supervision of a higher electoral committee, the report explained. The committee will be headed by the President of Cairo Court of Appeal with President of Alexandria Court of Appeal and one of the deputies of the President of the Court of Cassation among the members. The only suggestion that the Shoura Council incorporated was one from the National Democratic Party (NDP). The suggestion was to make the Supreme Administrative Court s verdicts on parliamentary election violations not subject to appeal, said Shawki El Sayed, member of the legislative committee in the Shoura Council. El Sayed told The Daily Star Egypt that the electoral committee will monitor all committees in charge of voting procedures. The new law will also put an end to the violence and the use of religious slogans in elections that influence voters choices, El Sayed said. Hamdy Hassan, a member in the People s Assembly (PA) affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, told The Daily Star Egypt that the government should have been more frank in confessing that this law is made for only one purpose, that is, to curtail the Brotherhood s activity. As for the NDP s approved suggestion, Hassan said that the Supreme Administrative Court has ruled for the eligibility of the use of the motto Islam is the solution in elections on Nov. 11, 2006. The case was raised by some members of the NDP during the last parliamentary elections. According to El Sayed this court order was pronounced in the past before the constitutional amendments, whose changed articles explicitly forbid any political activity based in religion. The motto Islam is the solution is a political motto and not an Islamic one, Hassan said. On the other hand, Mohamed Khalil Kwaitah, a PA member from the NDP, told The Daily Star Egypt that renewing the political rights law is meant to implement the recent constitutional changes. The constitution explicitly forbids the establishment of any religion-based political activity, Kwaitah said. He added that the electoral committee will include judges and public figures and will enjoy full immunity to fairly monitor elections. As for the Shoura Council s disregard of the opposition's objections, Kwaitah believes that the opposition groups object for the sake of objection and not for national welfare. They have also rejected the constitutional amendments, he said. Diaa Rashwan, a political analyst with Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies told The Daily Star Egypt in a previous interview 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.
