Candidates, who are determined to win, dead or alive, the parliamentary elections on November 28, should calm down and put their daggers back in their sheathes. The thugs mobilised by candidates to terrorise their rival candidates should also withdraw from the battle that is bound to rage in many constituencies, notorious for violent electoral clashes. Female candidates should also put their muckraking and their diffusion of fabricated, image-damaging stories on hold. The candidates in the forthcoming elections should consider the price (in the form of casualties among themselves and their supporters) they'll have to pay to get their ticket for a five-year seat in the next Parliament. For many, it will be too expensive.Besides, their tickets might only be valid for a couple of years, as there are growing fears that the next People's Assembly will display clear symptoms of constitutional weakness. It is the Administrative Court which has detected constitutional landmines, which could explode under the feet of the next Parliament and its new members. This court has dismissed as unconstitutional the small nine-person General Election Commission, appointed to ensure that the nationwide voting later this month takes place in an atmosphere of integrity and transparency. The Administrative Court cannot understand how nine members appointed to supervise hundreds of sub-committees under their authority will be able to cope with this huge task. The court, chaired by Chief Justice Kamal el-Lamie, has also warned that the Higher Election Commission Law violates Article 88 of the Constitution and Article 24 of Political Rights Law 73/1956. The Administrative Court has asked the Constitutional Court to look into its concerns and officially announce its incontestable decision. A number of heavyweight members of the legal community are confident that the Constitutional Court will uphold the Administrative Court's concerns. The result would be an immediate dissolution of the next Parliament and calling for new elections. In the meantime, the Administrative Court has appreciated the complaints it has received from citizens, whose bids to run in the November's elections have been outrageously rejected by the security chiefs in their constituencies. These citizens, including several National Democratic Party (NDP) insurgents, have been denied their political and human rights, according to the court, which has ordered the security chiefs to ratify these citizens' candidacies and allow them to run down the electoral track. The Administrative Court's dramatic ruling should persuade candidates belonging to the ruling party and their opponents (mostly loyal to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood) to temporarily suspend their hostilities. Shortly before these constitutional loopholes came to light, violence erupted in different constituencies. A candidate belonging to the ruling National Democratic Party in El-Zarqa constituency in Damietta Governorate was attacked and injured by thugs hired by his opponent. Dozens of this NDP's candidate's supporters were also beaten up by these thugs. In his complaint to the police, the NDP candidate claimed that he was brutally attacked by an opponent belonging to the opposition Al-Wafd Party. He also said that, together with his supporters, he was stoned and their car windows were smashed. Publishing this unhappy piece of news, a pro-Government newspaper behaved unethically by refusing to listen to the story of his rival from Al-Wafd. Violence also reportedly flared in el- Mahalla el-Kobra in el-Gharbia Governorate, where several candidates were injured and had their cars damaged. Suicides marking Eid el-Adha Domestic violence is thought, in many cases, to be related to the constantly rising market prices. Egyptian men are liable to kill their wives, if they refuse to stop their insulting remarks about marrying ill-paid workers and how lucky their female neighbours and relatives are to have stumbled on affluent men. Domestic violence in Egypt is liable to turn fatal when poor families celebrate special occasions like Eid el-Adha (The Greater Bairam). A man living in the village of Abul Gheit in el-Qaliubiya Governorate has been charged with GBH after throwing his wife off the balcony of their secondfloor flat. The woman broke her skull, legs and back. Regretting that she was still alive, her husband told the police: “If I hadn't done this, she wouldn't have stopped insulting me for not having money to buy meat, so we could celebrate Eid Al-Adha in the traditional manner” . The family have three children. The violent husband, who works in a factory, only earns about LE600 (a little over $100) per month. “When I reminded her about how little I earn, she said it's my problem, not hers. I wish she'd died, as she'd only going to start her insults again when she recovers,” he added. Another man set his wife alight for the very same reasons. “She provoked me. She knew very well that I couldn't afford meat for the Feast and insisted I borrow money to do so. She has ruined her life, my life and our children's life,” said this violent husband, who earns the princely sum of LE700 per month, which he explained is hardly enough to feed his five-member family with bread. Meanwhile, the Government refuses adamantly to increase the basic wage of workers to more than LE400 per month. That is why it should accept responsibility for these domestic murders.
