NDP submits draft bill on Presidential elections to the government
Egypt, Politics, 6/8/2005

The National Democratic Party (NDP) yesterday submitted to the Government the final draft bill which will regulate the forthcoming presidential elections.

The bill, according to the Middle East News Agency (MENA), includes the NDP's visions and ideas about the rules for the presidential elections, for which no date has been set.

The bill outlines the terms of reference for a higher ad hoc committee to supervise the elections as well as set the rules for the candidates' campaigns before the polls. The draft bill gives the Presidential Elections Committee the status of a public legal entity, which will have its own budget and will be fully independent.

The Committee, according to the bill, has the full authority to form its general secretariat along with devising and applying the terms of reference for the secretariat.

The proposed bill says that the Committee would be responsible for opening candidacy for the presidential polls, and setting and applying the necessary measures for the polls.

The committee would receive, examine and appraise applications from candidates to ensure that they meet all the requirement for the top post.

According to the draft bill, the Committee would prepare a short list of candidates and publish it in the Official Gazette and two main daily newspapers for 30 days before the election.

The bill says that the Committee, the number of its members has not yet been disclosed, would set the date of elections as well as dates for run-offs.

It would also declare the dates for the beginning and end of campaigns by candidates.

It sets a code of ethics by which candidates must abide during the election campaigns.

The most important features of this code are that campaigners would not expose the personal lives of their rivals, but they must preserve national unity and refrain from using or threatening to use violence against other candidates.

The candidates, according to code of ethics, should not directly win votes by offering presents, donations, or money to voters. Moreover, they are not allowed to use state-owned buildings, places of worship, means of transport, or public or private sector companies in their election campaigns.

The Committee is to ensure that all campaign rules are applied, and that candidates have equal opportunity to use the state-owned media in their broadcasts to the nation.

The bill also says that the Committee will have a general supervision over the voting and vote counting processes.

In addition, the Committee will receive the results of the elections and declare the final results.

The draft legislation defines the rules for the voting process, the vote count, the declaration of the election results, and the settlement of disputes that may arise among the candidates after results are announced.

Members of the General Secretariat and the Policies Committee of the NDP have approved the draft law after thorough discussion, MENA added.

It also incorporated the opinions and visions that had expressed by the political parties, which attended last week's extended national dialogue that was held by the NDP.

Dr. Mohamed Kamal, member of the NDP Policies Secretariat, said there were no differences between the party and the Government over the bill.

However, Dr. Kamal said that there were differences over the financial ceiling for expenditures of the candidate's election campaigns.

Meanwhile, Speaker of the People's Assembly, Dr. Ahmed Fathi Sorour yesterday denied a report by an Arab satellite TV news station that the date for accepting applications from the presidential candidates would be July 18.

The station also alleged that the presidential polls would be held in the second half of September.

"This news item is groundless and baseless," the PA speaker said, adding that he had never made any statement on the presidential polls to the station, which he refused to name.

Under the recent constitutional amendment, a commission entrusted with supervising presidential election is to receive nomination applications and declare the results of polls.

The cabinet held a meeting last night under Prime Minister Dr. Ahmed Nazif for discussing the presidential election draft bill.

The cabinet also discussed many draft bills on the amendment of the People's Assembly and the Shura Council bill, and the political rights bill in preparation for referring them to the People's assembly and the Shura Council for discussion and their approval.

Previous Stories:
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