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| Egyptian Parliament (Image: Geo-Entrepreneurs) |
After Egypt’s Islamist-dominated Lower House of Parliament (People’s
Assembly) was dissolved due to the Court decision in 2012 just before Mohamed
Morsi took office Egypt has been without Parliament till now. The Upper House
of Parliament, Shura Council, has adopted the new electoral law transforming
People’s Assembly into House of Representatives and imposing significant
amendments to the nature of the new Parliament and the electoral process and
system.
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has declared in his statement in
December 2014 that the new Parliamentary elections are expected to be held in
March 2015. Thus, Egyptians will head to the polling stations in order to
finally choose legislative body.
Thus, the former People’s Assembly (Lower House of Parliament) was
transformed into the House of Representatives, according to the new document
adopted by the Shura Council in April 2013. This document in its turn regulates
the performance and election of the MPs of the new Parliament and their
numbers, it also defines electoral districts and conditions allowing the
citizens to participate in the elections. In addition to that, the new law
includes also some voting regulations.
According to the new electoral law the House of Representatives is
comprised of 567 members. 420 of them are individual candidates, while 120
other MPs are to be elected according to the closed party lists. Meanwhile, 5%
of those seats, what makes 27 MPs, will be appointed by the President upon
recommendations of the state councils, professional syndicates and other respective
bodies.
Talking about the difference of the new electoral system imposed in Egypt
it’s worth mentioning that is differs significantly from the one that was in
power in 2011-2012, after January 25 Revolution, when nearly two third of the
seats in the Parliament were allocated according to the closed proportional
lists and one third of the remaining seats went to the individual candidates;
and it also differs from the electoral system which was in power during the
rule of Hosni Mubarak, when the actually individual candidates’ system resulted
in a total dominance of the Mubarak’s National Democratic Party.
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| Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi (Image: NDTV) |
The 2015 Parliamentary elections will be held according to the mixed
electoral system, with the majority of the seats allocated between the
individual candidates and the rest of the seats either taken by the MPs elected
according to the closed lists or to the MPs appointed by the President.
It’s worth mentioning that individual candidates are elected on an
independent basis. In addition to that, party members can also participate in
the elections as individual candidates, while the non-party candidates can form
their own lists.
The system of the individual candidates’ voting was strongly criticized and
opposed by many Egyptian political parties, figures and experts, as they claim
that some wealthy businessmen and influential persons, probably even affiliated
with the previous regimes or Muslim Brotherhood, could use their financial
assets, positions, connection and influence in order to get into the new
Parliament as individuals. That opens the doors for the clans and corruption in
power.
In addition to that, the smaller size of the electoral districts and the
bigger number of the individual MPs, not connected to some particular parties
and not representing some party ideology, could result in little unity and
confidence in the future Parliament, and the MPs would be likely concentrating
more on the local issues rather than on the global ones, claim the critics of
the individual candidates’ electoral system.
Though officials supporting this system claim that it will allow the MPs
to establish closer cooperation and connection with public, what will allow to
work more productive on the local issues and resolving local problems.
As for the other part of the MPs of the future Parliament, they will be
elected according to the closed party lists system. It means that the voters can
choose only the full party list rather than a certain candidate. It’s also
worth mentioning that the list should be absolute, what means that the list
that will gain the absolute majority of the votes (50+1) will win all the seats
in the electoral district. So, if the party wins more than 51% of the votes, it
will get all the seats, while other parties will be excluded regardless of
their results.
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| Egyptians standing in lines at their polling stations during the 2011 parliamentary elections (Image: The Guardian) |
The stances on the closed party lists system are also different and
controversial. Political parties, figures and experts who are against this
electoral system claim that it can squander the votes and it also fails to
provide fair representation of all the political parties, as the old parties
with bigger financial abilities and connections will get probably more chances
than those recently created. Though there are also supporters of this system,
declaring that it will help to avoid candidates of the currently banned Muslim
Brotherhood getting into Parliament.
Speaking about the electoral system it’s worth mentioning that critics
of the currently imposed one are mostly in favor of an open party lists’
system, when the voters can choose a certain candidate or even several
candidates from different party lists, and of a proportional lists, when the
seats are allocated based on the votes of each list or a candidate. Such a
system can allow providing fair representation of political forces during the
election and in the future Parliament as well.
Another important issue regarding the new electoral law is
representation of women, farmers and workers, youth and minorities in the
Parliament. According to the new regulations among the 120 seats for the
parties there should be at least 56 women, 24 Coptic Christians, 16 farmers and
workers, 16 youth, 8 Egyptian expats and 8 people with the special needs, while
at least half of 27 MPs appointed by the President should be also women, what
differs from the previous parliamentary election’s regulations.
Some changes apply also for the forming and division of the electoral
districts in Egypt. Thus, there will be 237 constituencies for the individual
candidates throughout the country, of different size. Some of the
constituencies will get one seat only; some others will get two or three seats.
Among them constituencies nationwide will be created for the closed party lists’
voting. Two of them will comprise of 45 seats each, while other two will
comprise of 15 seats respectively. It’s worth mentioning also that there are
serious concerns about fair and balanced representation of individual
candidates and number of their seats in proportion to the numbers of votes in
the newly created electoral districts.
Thus, the new electoral system makes it actually difficult for a politic
party to get a sizeable bloc in the Parliament, so the new chamber will be
dominated by the individual candidates with poor representation of political
ideologies, what could result in an unstable legislature, according to the
experts criticizing the amendments to the electoral law.
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| Egyptian lady voting during the parliamentary election in Egypt (Image: Haaretz) |
Another aspect of the new electoral law includes defining of the powers
and responsibilities of the House of Representatives, that include actually
legislative authority, the authority of reviewing the laws issued since the
ouster of the Islamist backed President Mohamed Morsi, approving changes and reshuffles
in the Cabinet of Ministers, approving presidential pardons, ratifying
presidential decisions and decrees and presidential appointments of the
government’s members, independent state bodies’ members and also removal of the
government. In addition to that Parliament is also entitled to withdraw
confidence from President through the national referendum. If the majority of
citizens will vote in favor of such a decision of the Parliament President will
be forced to step down, but if the people will support President, Parliament
will be dissolved and the early parliamentary elections will be declared.
Thus, the new parliamentary elections to be held according to the new
electoral law are expected to take place in March 2014. They will be also
monitored by the local and foreign monitors from the non-governmental democracy
and human rights organizations and also by the foreign embassies and electoral delegations.
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