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Official Gazette – Issue No. 8 bis (a) May 26, 2013 11 ruling that shall be unchallengeable by any means of appeal (article 29 bis). Whereas article (22) and the end of article (30) stipulate that no modifications shall be made to the voters' database after calling on the voters to the election or the referendum. If the Administrative Court issues a ruling on modifying the voters' database, it hinders the achievement of the judicial compromise which the relevant stakeholders sought. This voids the rescission action of its content and such ban represents an encroachment form the legislative authority on the judicial authority jurisdiction, in infringement of the principle of power separation and also infringes – first of all – the right to election which is considered suspension and derogation of political rights exercise. Thus, such two texts lie in the core of violating articles (6), (55), (75), (81), (82) and (115) of the constitution. Eleventh: article (31) of the presented draft law stipulates that "The date of general elections shall be set in accordance with a decree of the President of the Republic, whereas the date of by-elections shall be set by a decision by HEC president. Such a decree or decision shall be made at least sixty days before the date specified for elections.” For referenda, the decision shall include the dates stipulated in the cases of referenda stated in the Constitution. The President of the Republic may issue a decree, in case of necessity, to postpone the date fixed for general elections or referendum, or one of its rounds or elections in some electoral constituencies. Such decree shall be issued without being restricted to the date stipulated in the paragraph 1, and to be announced as set out by Article (32) of this law". Whereas article (150) of the constitution vest the President of the Republic with calling for a referendum and articles (6), (55), (200), (208) and (228) of the constitution states that the constitutional legislator vested the law with the regulation of election and candidacy rights and tasked NEC solely with managing the electoral process from its beginning to the end by result announcement, provided that HEC – existing at the time the constitution comes into effect – undertakes full supervision of the first legislative elections following the constitution enforcement, and ensured independence to the independent bodies. Furthermore, article (132) of the constitution stipulated that "The Republic's President shall exercise his jurisdiction as prescribed in the constitution" as the Head of State and chief of the executive authority, which means that the jurisdiction of managing the electoral process is assigned – as a general basis – to NEC, and as an exception, to HEC in accordance with a transitional provision, without the intervention of the Republic's President as the chief of the executive authority to achieve integrity and impartiality of elections which the constitution obliged all the state's authorities to ensure. Whereas the foregoing article (31) allowed the Republic's President to manage the electoral process by calling for holding elections and, in exceptional cases, postpone the dates set for holding the general elections in one of its rounds or in some constituencies, in case such jurisdiction is assigned – currently – to HEC only. Thus, such text infringes the principle of integrity and impartiality of elections and lessened NEC and HEC's jurisdiction of managing the electoral process. Accordingly, the aforementioned text infringes articles (6), (55), (132), (150), (200), (208) and (228) of the constitution.

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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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