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Official Gazette – Issue No. 9 (bis) March 1, 2015
express his/her opinion in referendums. To do so, the State shall insert the name of
each citizen in the voters’ database without request therefrom provided that he/she
satisfies the conditions for voting.”
Based on the above, and in light of Article (87) which states that “the State shall enter
the name of each citizen in the voters’ database without request therefrom provided
that he/she satisfies the conditions for voting”, the plaintiff is an eligible voter since
he is a citizen and the papers constituting the present lawsuit do not, in any way,
imply that the plaintiff no longer enjoys the voter status for any reason whatsoever.
Such papers do not state any impediment preventing the plaintiff from exercising his
political rights. The plaintiff brought a lawsuit before the said Court, challenging HEC
Decree #1/2015 and requesting that an immediate ruling be issued to suspend and
annul the decree in order to prevent the conduct of HoR elections, especially the
elections to be held in Al-Darb Al-Ahmar and Al-Sayida Zeinab, which are two
constituencies under the individual electoral system. Furthermore, the plaintiff filed
the present constitutional lawsuit, requesting that the Decree Law #202/2014 be
deemed unconstitutional since Article (3) thereof and the tables attached thereto
allegedly violate Constitutional Articles (4), (9), and (102). The plaintiff justified such
allegation on the grounds that the division of HoR election constituencies, as provided
by such tables, deprives him and all his peer citizens in the said constituency from the
right to fair representation. The plaintiff, also, claimed that the provisions regulating
constituencies, provided for in Table (I-Individual System) attached to the law
referred thereto, affect his legal status in his capacity as a voter and influences his
rights since, according to the law, a constituency represents the spatial and
geographical framework within which the right to elect and to be elected shall be
exercised. Hence, in this lawsuit, the plaintiff does have a direct personal interest
qualifying him to challenge Article (3) of the aforementioned Presidential Decree Law
#202/2014, within the limits of the provisions related to the individual electoral
system and Table (I- Individual System) attached thereto. The scope of the present
lawsuit shall only be restricted to such limits since the constitutional matter in
question has a definite cause-effect relationship with the demands raised by the
plaintiff in his lawsuit and is directly related to the provisions stated within these
limits, unlike the remaining provisions. On the other hand, attached to the present
lawsuit is the wording of the legislative provision which is allegedly unconstitutional.
The lawsuit, also, illustrates the constitutional provisions which are allegedly violated
by such legislative provisions and states such violations as previously mentioned, in
accordance with Article (30) of the said SCC Law. Accordingly, neither one
justification from the two justifications on the grounds of which the State Lawsuit
Authority requested that the present lawsuit be rejected is well-founded.
Whereas the plaintiff claims that the contested provision violates Constitutional
Articles (4), (9), and (102) since such provision does not ensure that each HoR
representative is representing an equal number of voters in each of the constituencies
assigned for the individual electoral system, hence depriving the plaintiff and all his
peer citizens in the said constituency from the right to fair representation of voters,
population, and governorates. Based on such, the contested provision discriminates
among voters without any objective justification even though they all enjoy the same
legal status, hence violating the principle of equal opportunities and equal suffrage.