• MB News
  • May 14, 2007
  • 8 minutes read

MB MPs Criticize Way Of Forming Higher Election Committee

The Muslim Brotherhood parliamentary bloc lashed out at the way with which the higher election committee of the coming Shura Council elections was formed. The bloc said the committee is mainly formed of government vetted figures whose NDP affiliation may negatively affect their neutrality.
 
It is worth mentioning that President Mubarak has issued republican decree No. 158 appointing the members of the higher election committee and a second republican decree No. 159 calling for holding the Shura Council mid-term elections on Monday, June 11. Run off elections will be held on Monday, June 18.


Following is the formation of the Higher Election Committee:


-Adel Zaki Andrawes, President of Cairo Court of Appeal, as Chairman.
-Mahmoud Ibrahim Ahmed, Deputy President of the Court of
Cassation.
-Hassan Ahmed Hassan Sulaiman, the president of Alexandria
Court of Appeal.
-Mahmoud Mohamed Zaki Moussa, deputy President of the
State Council.
-Helmi Zaki Metwalli, former President of Cairo Court of
Appeal.
-Malak Mina Goergi Ishak, former President of Cairo Court
of Appeal.
-Ahmed Radwan Gomaa, former Minister of State for Cabinet
Affairs.
-Ahmed Awwad Bilal, the Dean of the Faculty of Law, Cairo
University.
-Mohamed Ahmed Abu Zeid, former President of Cairo Court
of Appeal.
-Ismail Hassan Mohamed, former Governor of the Central
Bank of Egypt.
-Lewis Loqa Greis Saad, former Editor-in-Chief of Sabah
El-Kheir Magazine.


The Presidential decree also named substitute members as follows :
-El-Sayyed Salah Attiya Abdel-Samad, Deputy President of
the Court of Cassation.
-Moataz Kamel Morsi, Deputy President of the Council of
State.


-Laila Abdel-Azzim Gaafar, former head of the
Administrative Prosecution Authority.
-Mohamed Mohamed Misbah, Deputy Dean of the Faculty of
Law, Helwan University.
-Mohamed Mohamed Ali Zayed, former Deputy President of the
Court of Cassation.
-Omar El-Farouq El-Husseini, former Dean of the Faculty of
Law, Benha University.
 
The Muslim Brotherhood parliamentary bloc expressed its dissatisfaction and rejection to the presidential decree of forming the Higher Election Committee, confirming that the committee doesn’t enjoy neutrality as prescribed by law in addition to the fact that a number of persons inside this committee have occupied positions inside the National Democratic party-controlled government.
 
Hussein Ibrahim, the undersecretary general of the MB bloc, said:” First of all, the law of exercising political rights is a badly marred law; consequently, every thing based on it is marred; we have refused the way of selecting this committee in principle; we demanded that there must be a mechanism for choosing this committee which is currently NDP-controlled.
 
Ibrahim added that article 88 that has been recently amended among the constitutional amendments was so much deformed and the law of exercising political rights which is based on it was drafted in a worse manner.
 
“Even if this committee were neutral (which is far from being right), what shall we do in the general committees and subcommittees with which we will deal; the Higher Election Committee has not branches in other governorates”  said Ibrahim adding that: ” We shall we do in front of this bad climate that the National Party created; consequently, the only available option is creating a popular pressure to preserve the remining rights.
 
For his part, Saad Al Husseini, the assistant secretary general of the MB bloc, said that this committee is biased although it must be neutral; this is because the public figures that have been chosen occupied posts under president Mubarak and his successive governments,; also, the judicial elements inside this committee benefitted from the weeklong law of lifting the judges’ age of retirement to 70 years; consequently, we can say that: most persons in this committee are government vetted ones; this their decisions will be government leaning decisions.
 
Al Husseini confirmed that this committee has been actually formed to carry out three decisions:
First: that the slogan of “Islam is the solution” is a religious slogan and it isn’t allowed to be used in the election campaigns.
Second: Rigging the elections.
Third: Rejecting any appeals from the candidates.
 
Al Husseini stressed that this committee has been picked up to primarily guarantee a full rigging of the elections, pointing out that the notoriuous constitutional amendments aimed mainly at constitutionalizing corruption, and this committee aims at legalizing vote rigging and fraud.
 
Ali Fath Al-Bab , a member of the MB bloc, said there is a premeditated intention for rigging the elections to form a Shura Council and People’s Assembly which are to the whims of corruption, specially after the law of exercising political rights has been tailored; consequently the following measures are merely an implementation of their previous targets.
 
Fath Al-Bab pointed out that these foul plays started with attempting to twist the ruling of the Supreme Constitutional Court of stating that there must be a full judicial supervision over the election process; when the regime found out that it can’s survive through fair elections, it drafted the defamed and notorious constitutional amendments, and drafted a new law for exercising political rights to confirm its full authoritarian grip.
 
The Muslim Brotherhood parliamentarian said that if there is a political will for holding fair elections, such members in this committee will not not be selected, adding that former Interior Minister Mamdouh Salem held fair elections in 1976 when this political will was available while we miss it nowadays.
 
“This Higher Election Committee can never be neutral” said Fath Al-Bab, pointing out that the chairman of this committee was the ex-chairman of the central bank; how can we expect neutrality from a person who has been implementing policies and instructions of a rival in these elections, the National Democratic Party that controls the government.
 
The Egyptian regime used the NDP majority in parliament to raise the age of retirement for the judges to 70 years in order to enable these  persons to legalize rigging the elections, said the Brotherhood MP.


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