Egypt’s Supreme Electoral Commission (SEC), which will monitor the upcoming parliamentary elections, is slated to issue the regulations for the political rights laws in the upcoming days. The regulations will include 38 articles that will guide the electoral process and give the power to the SEC to manage every stage, from preparing the voters’ lists to the complaints related to the elections.
Regulations will also include forming a committee headed by a member of the SEC, Judge Samir Abdel Moaty, to prepare the first database for voters.
One of the articles will stipulate forming an electoral committee in every governorate to include members of the judiciary, authorizing them to supervise the presentations of the voters’ database as well as inspecting voting stations and reviewing candidates’ proxies inside the stations.
Criterion for choosing the voting stations and the venues for counting the votes will also be detailed. “This is a guideline we have been long calling for, however, I hope to witness its real manifestation,” said Rashad Al-Bayoumi, deputy head of the Muslim Brotherhood, told Daily News Egypt.
The former regime forged parliamentary elections by issuing votes in the name of dead citizens, he said, and allowing some to vote more than once outside their electoral district.
He hopes the political rights law will be enforced to prevent similar incidents from recurring.
“Voters should be allowed to vote using their national IDs rather than voting cards,” Al-Bayoumi added.
Fouad Badrawi, secretary general of Al-Wafd party, said he hopes the law “outlines mechanisms to guarantee the integrity of the coming parliamentary elections starting from the compilation of the voters’ database to the announcement of the results.”
The only way this can be ensured is by allowing judicial supervision of the entire electoral process, he added.
Full Article: Electoral commission to issue regulations of political rights law.
