10
Elections 2000
Deficient Supervision and Absent Participation
"The experience of the parliamentary elections of 2000 shows that limited amendments introduced on the Law of Political Rights and the Law of People's Assembly (the judiciary supervision) are not sufficient guarantees for fair elections. The number of challenges filed against the results of the last elections before the Court reached 800 challenges."
Therefore, we thought that this report "Elections 2000, Deficient Supervision and Absent Participation” (issue 10, civil society series) is important in order to study different aspects of the people assembly’s elections by displaying conditions and circumstances of the last elections. Elections 2000 took place under judiciary supervision. However, the election process followed the usual method that prevented people to have real opportunities to express themselves. The report explains that the problem is not on days of elections or declaring results, but it has different aspects beginning with the legal framework of the elections and the governmental interference to the vote counts. The report displays some examples for the violations that took place during the last elections
The report is divided into four parts:
This part displays some articles of the Constitution in addition to other laws that organize the election process, such as the Law on Political Rights no.73/56, the Law on the People's Assembly no.38/72, the Decree of the Interior Minister no.3622 that regulates elections’ propaganda, and the Emergency Law of 1981. It points to the legal framework of the elections, which is full of violations and undemocratic articles, such as Article no.93 of the Constitution that gives the People's Assembly the exclusive authority to control appeals’ execution in addition to restrictions of nomination, voting and propaganda. Moreover, the principle of percentile representation in the People's Assembly - i.e. the 50% of seats allocated to workers and farmers - and the state of emergency, imposed to dominate the freedom of candidates to communicate with voters, restrict the opportunities for genuine and fair elections.
The second part: "Election Process and the Judiciary Supervision
This part shows the gap between the sentence of the Higher Constitutional Court on judiciary supervision and the violations that took place during the election process, which led to the same results of all previous elections. These violations as this part mentions start from the choice of elective symbols and the restrictive decision of the Minister of the Interior on propaganda campaigns. After that, elections witnessed the indirect falsification by the manipulation of the electorate statements, which included repetitions as well as the names of the dead.
The report also shows other violations that took place during the election process when security forces closed the ballot boxes in some constituencies in order to prevent the success of certain candidates. Finally, the report points to the rejection of the People's Assembly to submit to the Court decisions that ruled the election results in certain constituencies null and void. The report explains that the government only adopted judiciary supervision in order to prevent falsification in specific constituencies while preserving it on the national scale.
The Third Part "Remarks on Parliamentary Elections in Egypt
This part displays some examples of previous election rounds as evidence that the violations of the last elections do not represent an exception as they are characteristic of all elections in Egypt. In doing so, the report also examines the election process in some rural constituencies in various governorates, including Beba in Ben Swief, Mit Ghamr in Dakahleya, Zefta in Gharbeya and Kafr-l-Sheik in Kalyoubeya
The Forth Part "Recommendations
This part provides a number of recommendations that the center considers as guarantees for fair elections and democracy. The center thinks that the meaning of free elections is to give real opportunities for individuals to vote without restriction. Finally, the report lists some constitutional, legal and practical guarantees that have to be observed .
I. Constitutional Guarantees :
· The complete respect for the principle of equal opportunity for individuals and non-discrimination between them. The legal rights of individuals to nomination and election shall be guaranteed in conformity with articles 62-40-8 of the Egyptian constitution.
· Applying the International Declaration of the International Parliamentary Union ratified by Egypt on 26-03-1994, which guarantees the right of candidates to express their political opinions without interference or restrictions.
· Complete judiciary supervision throughout the election process in accordance with article no.88 of the Egyptian Constitution.
The center believes that judges should preside over both principal election .committees and sub-committees
II. Legal Guarantees:
· Suspension of the Law No.162/1958 on the State of Emergency and its amendments during the elections.
· Abolition of articles No.9-8-4, paragraphs No. (26-3) of the Law No.40/1997 on Political Parties. These articles impose many restrictions on the right to form political parties and on party activities
· Abolition of all exceptional articles of the Penal Code, which restrict free expression during elections, such as articles No. (86-98b-102-188-187-179-178-177-176-124)
· Amendment of articles No. (2-3) of the Law No.73/1956 on Political Rights.
· The amendment of article No.4 of the Law No.73/1956, so as to guarantee the right of every individual at the age of 18 and above to be automatically enrolled in the electorate statements
· Abolition of article No. 3 of the statutes of the Law No.73/1956 that provides that the mayor or the village chief (or any other person they may authorize) shall prepare the electorate statements, particularly after the amendment of the Law No.58/1978 and the Law No.26/1994, making positions of mayor and village chief by governmental appointment instead of election
· Judges, who will preside over ballot boxes, should be appointed by the Higher Council of the Judiciary instead of the Minister of the Interior or the Minister of Justice, which requires the abolition of article no 24 of the Law No.73/1956
· Intensification of punishments related to election crimes, especially for entering ballot committees with weapons, to detention instead of fines, which requires the amendment of article 32 of the Law No.73/1956
· The necessity that every voter signs in front of his name as well as the chair of the ballot committee, which requires the amendment of article No. 32 of the Law No.73/1956.
III. Practical Guarantees:
· Regulating participation of Egyptian individuals, living abroad during the election process by the establishment of ballot boxes inside Egyptian embassies.
· Lifting the parliamentary immunity of members of the People's Assembly during the elections to guarantee equal opportunity for all candidates.
· Protecting the right of candidates to hold symposiums and meetings without restriction, by substituting the condition of permission by the ministry of the interior by a notification of the time and place of the meeting .
· Monitoring financial budgets of the ministries and governmental institution before elections to limit usage of public money in elective propaganda of nominative ministries, governors and officials.
· Specializing some channels on TV and radio for political parties and nominees to show their elective programs. This is according to article no 2 of law 13 of 1979. These channels have to continue for ten hours a day and divide them between nominees with equality
· Police men have to be neutral with all nominees by letting them compete legally during their propaganda and elections.
· Elections boxes have to be transformed after ballot from partial committees to classification committees with accompany of committee chief and nominees’ representatives.
· Real and complete judiciary monitoring over elections through its details. delete subordination of judiciary institution to any executive authorities in order to guarantee its independence and neutralism .
· Execute charter of elections’ laws in addition to free political rights from ambiguous articles that help for forgery.
· Work for political validity that comprises democracy in its real inclusive meaning representing on neutrality of mass media, freedom for forming parties and syndicates and freedom of the press.
· Neutrality of the institution that manage elections and freedom of propaganda during the elections without discrimination
· Dealing with the Court challenges against the election results with more neutrality and seriousness .
· Preventing nominees to use their authorities to press electors. The government has to stop pushing its employees to elect specific nominee, which prevents them to practice their right of free expression .
Finally, the Land Center for Human Rights calls on all officials to discuss the recommendations of this report in order to apply free and fair
elections and guarantee individuals' rights of choice and participation.