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Official Gazette – Issue No. 8 bis (a) May 26, 2013 17 Third: paragraph (6) of article (3) of the draft law says that "the scope and components of each list/single-winner system district shall be determined according to the attached tables". Whereas article (113) of the constitution says: "The House of Representatives shall be composed of a number not less than 350 members, elected by universal, secret, and direct ballot. To be eligible for membership in the House of Representatives, a candidate must be……. The law specifies other conditions for membership, the voting system, and the delimitation of electoral districts in a way that ensures fair representation of population and governorates." Whereas the abovementioned constitutional text established two main controls for electoral district delimitation, which are the fair representation of population and governorates; Whereas the fair representation of population means that a Member of Parliament (MP) at any electoral district shall represent the same number of voters represented by other MPs at other districts, ensuring the equal representation of voters in parliamentary councils. However, such principle does not mean that the number of persons represented by MPs at each district shall be arithmetically equal on an absolute basis, since such is practically impossible. Instead, to fulfill such principle, differences between such numbers and the general average of the number of voters represented by an MP at the state level shall be reasonable. Also, district delimitation should be proportionate to the number of population at each district taking into consideration the geographical distribution thereof. Moreover, districts should not be delimited unjustly or without taking public interest into consideration. In addition, fair representation of governorates requires the representation of all state governorates in the House of Representatives, regardless of the number of population thereof. Tables attached to the presented draft law show that allocation of seats of the House of Representatives among governorates has rather violated the principle of equal representation of voters in each governorate, especially that the preparations of the presented draft law adopted such principle as a basis for such allocation. The most serious violations were as follow: 1. Minya governorate has 2,718,947 voters and has been assigned 24 seats; 16 party-list seats and 8 individual seats. However, Sohag governorate, in which number of voters are less than Minya (2,393,672 voters), has been assigned 30 seats were allocated; 20 party-list seats and 10 individual seats. 2. Alexandria governorate has 3,347,770 voters and has been assigned 30 seats; 20 party-list seats and 10 individual seats, while Sharqiya governorate, in which the number of voters is almost the same like Alexandria (3,565,351 voters), has been assigned 36 seats; 24 party-list seats and 12 individual seats. 3. Ismailia governorate has 713,963 voter and has been assigned 6 seats; 4 partylist seats and 2 individual seats, while Damietta governorate, in which number

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Shura Council Speaker request for constitutional review of the draft law regulating the exercise of political rights.

Judgment

Question Presented: Whether the draft law adheres to the current constitutional political protections.

Alleged Acts: The Shura Council Member filed suit in the Supreme Constitutional Court seeking review of the draft law that limited political rights and they exercise thereof. The drafted law; (1) distinguished between judicial bodies and branches and required the National Elections Commission to assign supervision of voting to judicial bodies; (2) permitted those unable to cast their ballot based on visual impairment or other disability to verbally state the vote to an election official who would record it on a ballot; (3) permitting the President to set the general election date by decree; (4) no modifications may be made to the voter database after the call for elections; (5) reforming the voting abroad system to begin counting before the actual date of elections.

Summary: The court determined that the differentiation between judicial bodies and branches was unconstitutional and required that they words be synonymous. Second, the court determined that all ballots must be direct secret votes, but that this supposes the voter is sighted. Thus, the court determined that the committee head signing the ballot paper violated the right to secrecy. Third, the court determined that Presidential decree violated the constitution because it diminish the integrity of election and removed powers from the Election Commission. Fourth, the court determined that restrictions on the right to voter were limited such those they unreasonably hindered political participation. Fifth, the court determine that the constitution provides protections for Egyptians living abroad and the restriction of voting before election day failed to adhere to these protections.

Conclusion: The court struck down portion of the drafted law and unconstitutional because they conflicted with the political protections set forth in the constitution.

Legal Issue(s)

Accessibility
Vote Verification and Transmission

Region: Middle East and North Africa

Country: Egypt

Language of Decision

English

Court: Constitutional Court

Election Type: Review of law

Date of decision: May 26, 2013

Geolocation

Latitude: 30.38327401

Longitude: 31.34626495

: Geolocation

Primary Documents

SCC ruling- some elec procedures and PWDs-May 2013 (English).pdf
English
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Election Judgments - IFES

Select target paragraph3

Shura Council Speaker request for constitutional review of the draft law regulating the exercise of political rights.

Primary Documents

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