Mubarak to introduce amendments to election Law
Egypt, Politics, 7/13/2000

Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak summoned the two Houses of Parliament to convene two extraordinary sessions on Saturday and Sunday to look into the new amendments.

Mubarak yesterday met with senior officials and listened to the different legal and constitutional perspectives connected with article 88 of the Egyptian Constitution.

Information Minister Safwat al Sherif told reporters after the meeting that the President expressed his greatest respect for the constitution and renewed commitment to holding honest and fair elections.

"The President affirmed that Egypt is a democratic country based on respect for the constitution and supremacy of the law," Al-Sherif said.

He added that stability of the nation was the top priority on the government's agenda.

Sherif said the President instructed the working group commissioned to study the legal and constitutional aspects of article 88 to make sure that the constitution is fully respected.

He also urged them to design the new rules of holding parliamentary elections to be consistent with the spirit of the constitution by allowing the judiciary to supervise the entire electoral process.

Meanwhile, People's Assembly Speaker, Ahmed Fathi Sorour, said the Assembly's extraordinary session on Sunday would discuss the draft amendments on the law of practicing political right.

Sorour strongly argued that the Assembly's meeting was legally valid, adding that whatever resolutions it would issue were also constitutional.

He explained that the ruling of the Constitutional Court has not yet been published and the extraordinary session would convene at least one week before the publication of the ruling.

Sorour said the Assembly would discuss proposals to conduct the elections over three weeks to enable the judiciary to supervise the whole process.

He said that the elections would be held in the first half of November and run in conformity with the new amendments.

A parliamentary panel will meet Saturday to tackle a republican decree to amend the exercising of political rights.

The Constitutional Court had early this week dismissed as unconstitutional the article that allows civil servants to supervise balloting small polling stations.

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