8
Official Gazette, Issue 24 App (a) on 14 June 2012
independents not belonging to any party; Article 9 bis A of this law, which was
supplemented by Decree-law No. 120/2011, in that it stipulates that the final list of the
names of candidates under the individual candidacy system specify the political party
to which the candidate belongs. The interest here is because ruling on the
constitutionality of these provisions would have an effect and impact on the merits
case, the motions filed therein, and the court hearing the case. The scope of this case
and the interest therein also extends to the text of Article 1 of the aforementioned
Decree-law No. 123/2011, which is connected to the aforementioned provisions such
that it may not be split or detached, which places it before this Court for judgment.
Whereas the referral judgment blamed the appealed provisions for their violation of
the right to run for office, and the principle of equality and parity established by
Article 7 of the Constitutional Declaration, since it allowed political party members to
compete with independents not belonging to such parties over the one-third allotted
for the individual candidacy system, despite their monopoly over the two-thirds
allotted for election under the closed party-list system.
Whereas Article 1 of the Constitutional Declaration issued on the Thirtieth of March
2011 stipulates that: "The Arab Republic of Egypt is a democratic state based on the
principle of citizenship," and Articles 32 to 41 of this Declaration specify the rules
related to electing the People's Assembly and Shura Council. The significance and
bases of that ruling are that the constitutional legislature is keen on guaranteeing the
political rights of all citizens, the foundation of which are the right to candidacy,
suffrage, and participation in referendums, and on enabling them to practice those
rights in order to guarantee their participation in public life, considering them one of
the democratic means of expressing opinions and choosing leaders and representatives
steering the governing of the country and forming parliament.
Hence, the practicing of citizens of their political rights, particularly the right to
candidacy and suffrage, are considered one of the most important features and
implementation, whether as voters who enjoy the right to elect their candidates in
light of their satisfaction of their ability to express issues of importance to them, or as
candidates striving, according to fair rules, to win the seats they are competing to
occupy. Hence it was the practice of the legislatures of their discretional authority to
regulate those two rights, subject to abiding by the limits and measures provided by
the Constitutional Declaration, in a way that does not allow the organization of the
election process, whether its time, location, or way it is conducted, to be used as a
pretext to violate the rights which the Constitutional Declaration provided for the
process, in a way that would thwart its essence, discredit it, influence its presence,
make it futile or seize it.
Whereas it is established in the administration of justice in this court that the principle
of equality before the law - provided by Article 7 of the aforementioned
Constitutional Declaration - is neither a dictating, static principle denying practical
need, nor a hard rule that discards all forms of discrimination, nor is it a guarantee of
the accuracy of measurement warranted by the absolute scale of justice between
matters. If it was permissible for the State to itself undertake measures it deems
appropriate to regulate a certain issue, or to avert an evil which it deems necessary to
repel, and it was necessary that a major damage be warded off by a minor damage, its
implementation of the principle of equality shall not reveal its whims, nor be