CAIRO: The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) issued a draft of the amended People's Assembly law, proposing a combination of closed party lists and individual candidates systems. One third of the seats in each governorate will be elected through party lists while the rest will follow a two-round system; independent candidates will also be allowed to form their own lists. "We are presenting drafts of the anticipated laws for public discussion to respond to accusations that we are taking decisions unilaterally," said General Mamdouh Shahin, head of legal affairs at the SCAF. The draft law retained the 50 percent quota for workers and peasants. However, the draft law did not specify the number of constituencies, the number of MPs or the minimum number of votes required for a party to be represented in parliament. The law allows lists, which can be formed by one or more parties, to be modified until 10 days before elections. They are then required to be presented to the Higher Judicial Committee supervising the elections. Each list wins a number of seats according to the proportion of the votes it secures out of the total number of valid votes. The rest of the seats are distributed across other lists based on the votes they secure. During the People's Assembly elections, eligible voters will vote twice on two different ballots, once for a list the second time for an individual candidate. The Court of Cassation Court will probe the legitimacy contested seats and legal challenges must be presented within 30 days of the announcement of results. Rulings are to be issued within 90 days The draft law made no mention of a women's quota. The SCAF also issued a draft of the amended political parties' law. The amendment introduced a three-day window of objection to the establishment of a party following the publication of the names of its founders in two national newspapers. If the political parties' affairs committee does not voice any objections within 30 days of that three-day window, this means that the party is officially legitimate. Objections by the committee are to be presented to the Supreme Administrative Court. "The SCAF does not favor any single party above others and stands at an equal distance from everyone; it makes its decisions based on the welfare of the country only and we aren't authoritarian in our decisions," Shahin said. He added that SCAF is mulling providing financial aid to youth parties to encourage political participation and said that the political participation law was discussed with more than 20 committees including members of political parties and civil society organizations.
