CAIRO - A new bill designed to prevent members of the dissolved National Democratic Party (NDP) will be ratified within days, allowing courts to bar those convicted of political corruption from playing politics for five years, Minister of State for Local Development Mohamed Attia said. "The Cabinet has passed the draft of the treason bill, which will be entitled Political Corruption Law, to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces on Wednesday. It is expected to be ratified within days," Attia said. He pointed out that the law would define the cases of political corruption and the authority responsible for filing reports against them to the Chief Prosecutor. Politicians, activists and revolutionaries have been pressing for such a law to be drafted to bar remnants of former president Hosni Mubarak's NDP from running in the upcoming parliamentary elections. "The law also carries guarantees the innocent people are not charged and that those innocent can sue fake claimants. It also gives ordinary people the right to file lawsuits," Attia said. He added that the toughest punishment would be to deprive the convict from playing politics for five years, in case he was proved to have directly or indirectly harmed the interests of the nation. "However, the courts of appeal are the only authority to issue the rulings according to this law," the minister said. Candidacy for Egypt's parliamentary elections, due to be held on November 28 in three stages, started last week as two thirds of the seats will be contested by political parties, while the remaining third will be for independent candidates. "The registration process is very smooth. However, the turnout of the individuals running for the independent seats are dozens of times bigger than those for parties," said Abdel Mo'ez Ibrahim, the head of the Higher Election Commission. Ibrahim pointed out that political parties can form coalitions and electoral blocs and contest the polls in the same list, denying rumours that mixed electoral lists could be deprived from running. "In case the political parties have a mixed list, they will get one symbol," said Ibrahim. The Higher Election Commission, comprising a group of judges headed by Ibrahim, had run an apology on its official webpage after publishing an incorrect map of constituencies. Selecting a committee to draft a constitution will be the most important function of the new Parliament. Parties and candidates running for Parliament acknowledge that they do not know what powers it may have while the military controls the government. But several politicians said they planned to compete for seats, in part to have a platform for potentially challenging the military. "We are running in these elections to shorten the transitional period," said Hamdin Sabahi, the head of the Al-Karama Party. Sabahi, a potential presidential candidate, announced yesterday he would run for a People's Assembly's seat. No other presidential hopefuls are contesting the parliamentary seats.
