- Parliament News
- November 8, 2007
- 19 minutes read
MB Bloc Announces Priorities, Causes After Latest By-Elections
The by-elections of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) parliamentary bloc, held last Sunday at noon, Nov, 4th, 2007, led to reelecting Dr. Mohamed Al Beltagi, the current Secretary-General of the bloc, and MB bloc members Sobhi Saleh and Ahmed Diab as members in the MB bloc board, 40% change in the board structure in both seats which were filled by engineer Saad Al Husseini, the bloc”s assistant secretary-general, and Dr. Hamdi Hassan, the bloc”s media spokesman. Sobhi Saleh and Ahmed Diab replaced them in both seats.
Dr. Mohamed Al Beltagi garnered 44 votes out of a turnout of 80 MPs in the elections which two votes were annulled. Sobhi Saleh garnered 33 votes, engineer Saad Al Husseini garnered 28 votes, Dr. Hamdi Hassan garnered 24 votes, Dr. Akram Al Shaer and Dr. Ahmed Diab garnered 15 votes for each of them, Ali Fath Al-bab garnered 13 votes, engineer Mahmoud Amer garnered 10 votes, Mohsen Radi garnered 8 votes, Sabri Amer and Azab Mostafa garnered 6 votes for each one of them, and Dr. Farid Ismail garnered 5 votes, engineer Ashraf Badruddin and Ibrahim Zakariya Yunus garnered 4 votes for each one of them. Saaduddin Khalifa, Dr. Ibrahim Al-Jaafari and Mostafa Awadallah garnered 3 votes for each one of them, Osama Gado and Abdul Azim Abu Saif garnered two sounds for each one of them. Sheikh Sayed Askar, Sabri Khalafallah, Dr. Abdul Fattah Hassan, Alamuddin Al- Sakhawi, Mostafa Mohamed Mostafa, Mohamed Kasaba, Mohammedi Abdul Maqsood, bahaa Atiya, Gamal Hanafi and Ibrahim Abu Awf garned one single vote for every one of them. 6 other ballot papers were annulled.
Dr. Al Beltagi managed to keep office after winning more than 50 % of the votes while a runoff was held – according to the election by-law- between MPs who garnered the highest number of votes: Sobhi Saleh ( 33 votes, Dr. Hamdi Hassan ( 24 votes), engineer Saad Al Husseini ( 21 votes), Dr. Akram Al Shaer ( 15 votes), Dr. Ahmed Diab ( 15 votes) as he had garnered the same number of votes of the Akram Al Shaer. After 6 ballot papers were annulled, Sobhi Saleh garnered 52 votes, Dr. Ahmed Diab garnered 32 votes and they won both the seats while engineer Saad Al Husseini (29 votes), Dr. Akram Al Shaer (20 votes) and Dr. Hamdi Hassan ( 17 votes) were defeated in these by-elections on the office of the Muslim Brotherhood“s parliamentary bloc.
Dr. Gamal Zahran, an independent member of parliament who monitored the by-elections, praise the transparency and the democracy in which the elections of MB parliamentary bloc was held. He declared that the National Democratic Party (NDP) failed to hold elections like these. ” The ruling National Party in Egypt does not have neither elections nor candidates”, said Zahran adding that the bloc”s message is clear: that it recognizes elections.
He pointed out at the same time that he monitored the elections out of his interest in encouraging the political blocs in parliament to hold such by-elections.
A coordinating meeting of the MB parliamentary bloc”s office is expected to be held later on Wednesday to elect the Secretary-General, the deputy secretary-general, the media spokesman and those in charge of issues and sectors.
Asked about the most important priorities of the MB parliamentary bloc in coming period, and the most important social issues that it will discuss during the new parliamentary round, Hussein Ibrahim, the MB parliamentary bloc”s deputy chairman, said:” The most important priorities include the legislative agenda of the MB parliamentary bloc. It will be presented and discussed in the coming period. This legislative agenda has a priority because it is an interpretation and translation of the slogan “Islam is the solution” through bills that will be submitted in the Egyptian parliament”.
“Add to this practically applying some sections mentioned in the MB”s party program ” said Ibrahim.
“Unfortunately, most intellectuals and analysts focused on some negative points in the MB party program, and they did not show any interest in the realistic application of the slogan ” Islam is the solution”. Therefore, we will raise this issue again during this parliamentary round”, said Ibrahim.
The Egyptian MP cited the examples of a bill for the civil endowment, that will inject adrenaline to the civil society and the professional work in Egypt. He also cited the bill of the Separate Court through which many facilitations will furnished for investors in issues related to litigation.
He cited many other bills that included laws related to the criminal procedures, as the MB parliamentary bloc members will demand restoring the job of the investigating judge, to keep the authority of filing charges for the public prosecution, while the investigation is the authority of the investigating judge.
Some other bills related to human rights in Egypt are also included in the legislative agenda of the MB parliamentary bloc.
Regarding the supervisory agenda, Hussein Ibrahim said: ” The MB parliamentary bloc submitted during the parliamentary break a request demanding the Assembly to discuss the issue of the spike in prices, but this request was rejected by the majority at that time. However, we will insist on discussing the high prices issue that overshadowed every thing in Egypt. This is a priority for us to discuss, especially as he Egyptian government”s policies have sent more than 20 % of the Egyptian people to fall under the poverty line”.
“We also have presented our full view towards the energy prices in Egypt when we responded to the general budget” said Ibrahim .
He confirmed while talking about energy prices that steel and cement factories buying energy with lower prices and then selling their products to the Egyptian poor people by the international price is totally unfair.
For his part, Dr. Mohamed Al Beltagi, the Mb parliamentary bloc”s Secretary-General, said the MB bloc”s supervisory agenda during the new parliamentary round will include: ” Many incidents and problems that have recently surfaced n the Egyptian street, topped by the high prices, labor strikes, bad living conditions that made young men try to migrate to unknown areas leading to drowning of 140 young men off Italian coasts because they have no hope in the future while poverty and unemployment are hovering over them. “.
He added that the parliamentarians should work for finding solutions for these extremely social problems which are getting even more complicated one day after the other, and to define the government”s role, performance and responsibility for the rocketing rate of unemployment, high prices and other problems .
He said also that the issues that will also be handled include:” Not implementing court rulings in some cases related to individuals, non-governmental organizations or civil society organizations”, in addition to discussing again issues discussed by MPs during the parliamentary break about some organizations and institutions that were shut down”.
Al Beltagi confirmed that the most important priorities of the MB bloc”s legislative agenda will include:” Bills and laws tailored by the government like the anti- terrorism law, the public jobs and the local government”, adding that ” We have some bills to replace the laws that the government has drafted in advance like the health insurance and the a bill organizing the work of universities”.
The Secretary-General of the MB parliamentary bloc concluded his interview with Ikhwanweb, saying: “The political reform and the supervisory role over the dominating political corruption are still key routes which contain several details which will be discussed and approved in the near future”.
