CAIRO: A Mansoura Administrative Court ruling Thursday banned former National Democratic Party (NDP) members from contesting the upcoming parliamentary elections, which begin Nov. 28. The ruling obliges the Supreme Electoral Commission (SEC) to withdraw candidacy applications by former NDP members registered to run in the upcoming elections, nationwide and specifically in Daqahliya governorate, where the court is located. "It is illogical to consider the disbanded NDP a symbolic character when the real people who corrupted political life in Egypt are the members of this party. Therefore, what was ousted by the people in the Jan. 25 Revolution was not only the NDP, but its members," said the court verdict, published by El-Badil news website. “It is not enough to restore [the NDP's] property and finances to the ownership of the government, but this must also include a ban on running in elections, which is the most important tool in political life," the court verdict continued. "The court ruling is obligatory nationwide, from Alexandria to Aswan," lawyer and Executive Director of the Arab Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) Gamal Eid told Daily News Egypt. "The court's decision should be immediately implemented unless one of the involved parties appeals the decision, and then the Appeals Court accepts this appeal," Eid explained, adding that only the government or former members of the NDP can appeal the decision. "A former NDP member has to go to the court, declare that he is a former NDP member, and appeal the ruling," he said. However, Eid added, it would be “catastrophic” if the government appeals the ruling. "This would mean the government is encouraging remnants of the old regime, who ruined the political life of Egyptians for 30 years, to ruin it again," he said. The verdict, based on a court ruling by the Administrative Court that dissolved the NDP, says it was illogical to dissolve the party yet let its members operate freely in political life by forming new parties. Lawyer Mahmoud Abdel Khalik Saeid who filed the lawsuit was not immediately available for comment. Numerous calls have urged the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) and the Cabinet to issue a political exclusion law. Cabinet had submitted two drafts of a Treachery Act, to be amended to ban remnants of the old regime from holding government or political posts for five years. However, the amendments were never approved by SCAF. Youth led campaigns have been working on pointing out former NDP member contesting the 2011 elections. In addition to websites naming such candidates, campaigns encouraged citizens to mark banners of former NDP candidates with stickers exposing their identity. Political researcher at Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, Nabil Abdel Fattah, told DNE that former NDP members currently contesting the elections will urgently appeal the verdict in front of the Supreme Administrative Court. "I am 99 percent sure that the Supreme Administrative Court will accept the appeal and will stop the court verdict, since it is not backed by a political exclusion law to ban them from running for elections," Abdel Fattah said. Abdel Fattah added that the court ruling to dissolve the NDP was originally issued by the Supreme Administrative Court so it could not be appealed, but did not stipulate the political exclusion of the party's former members. "Unless the court verdict is backed by a political exclusion law, it will be immediately stopped by the Supreme Administrative Court. I can see no other options," Abdel Fattah added. He also criticized the SCAF's reluctance to issue a political exclusion law, blaming any future interference by NDP members in Egypt's political sphere on this reluctance. "The court verdict did not specifically call for complete political exclusion, it only obliged the SEC not to accept the applications of former NDP members to run in the elections," said former Head of the Judges Club Chancellor Zakaria Abdel Aziz. The court verdict, he added, blamed the SEC for accepting the applications of former NDP members. The Chancellor, however, described the verdict as "a historical decision to protect the revolution." "This verdict is very important to back a previous court ruling to disband the NDP," Abdel Aziz told DNE, adding that the NDP was not just the walls and the headquarters of the corrupted party, but also included the members who ruined politics in Egypt over 30 years. While Abdel Aziz foresees a high probability that NDP members running in the upcoming elections will appeal the verdict, he added that "it is very difficult to predict what the decision of the Supreme Administrative Court will be."
