Friday, February 11, 2011

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said Thursday he was proposing the ammendment of articles 76, 77, 88, 93 and 189 of the constitution and the abolishment of Article 179.
Here is an explanation of the relevant articles:

r Article 76 on candidates for president: Under this article of the existing constitution only a handful of candidates can stand in the next presidential elections, which are due by September – one from Mubarak’s National Democratic Party (NDP) and others from small recognized parties with little weight.

In theory independents could also stand but they would need endorsements from 250 elected officials, including 65 members of the lower house of Parliament, where the NDP has a stranglehold.
The opposition wants to open the system up in order to include independent politicians able to challenge the NDP candidate.

The opposition would like to restructure the Presidential Election Commission, the composition of which as outlined by Article 76 is weighted heavily in favor of whoever controls Parliament.

r Article 77 on term limits for the president: The existing Constitution allows the president to seek re-election indefinitely. Mubarak is currently on his fifth term in office. This article of the constitution also stipulates that terms in office last for six years. The opposition wants to limit the president to two terms in office, as in many democratic countries.

r Article 88 on the conduct of elections: The opposition wants constitutional changes to deter election rigging, a widespread practice for many decades. The most important step would be to reinstate the principle of judicial supervision eliminated from the constitution in 2007.

The constitution had previously stated that “the ballot shall be conducted under the supervision of the members of a judiciary organ.”

But the ammendments passed in 2007 allow non-judicial body members to perform the official monitoring and counting of ballots. The change in the law sparked charges of vote-rigging in elections.

r Article 93 on court rulings on rigged votes: Another constitutional provision which could help reduce electoral abuses would be to abolish the principle in Article 93 that only Parliament can rule on the eligibility of its members. The constitution states that “memberships [in Parliament] shall not be deemed invalid expect by a decision taken by a majority of two-thirds of the Assembly members.” The NDP majority has used this clause in the constitution to ignore court rulings invalidating election results.

r Article 189 on ammendments to the constitution: The rules say the president can ask Parliament to approve an amendment or Parliament can propose its own amendments. But all amendments must be approved in a referendum.

r Article 179 on the president’s use of military justice: This article allows the president to transfer any case concerning “terror” to any judicial body, which gives him the right to use military courts. The government has long used military courts in cases concerning national security and Islamist violence where verdicts are swifter. The emergency laws also allow for trying civilians in military courts. – Reuters, with The Daily Star