The Moslem Brotherhood and the Constitutional-article76 Amendment

The Moslem Brotherhood and the Constitutional-article76 Amendment
Ikhwan online
Abdel Moaz Muhammad
The political reform and the freedom are the prime issues for the representatives of the Moslem Brotherhood since their access to the parliament. For the sake of these issues, the Moslem Brotherhood incurred precious sacrifices such as standing before martial courts, facing trumped-up charges, and detentions. However, all these obstacles did not dampen their spirit; they kept on calling for the political reform, especially in the parliament


The parliamentary sessions 2000-2005 have witnessed the beginning of the reform and the constitutional amendments when President Mubarak had announced his initiative to make an amendment of the constitutional article 76 pertaining to the presidential election.


The initiative stimulated many subsequent discussions and proposals, in which the representatives of the Moslem Brotherhood have been profoundly effective. Overall, they approved the amendment but they called for further constitutional and political reform such as the abolishment of the Emergency Law.


Their participation has not restricted to mere discussions in the parliamentary sessions but has extended to introduce the movement’s version regards the amendment of the article 76. They have added that this initiative is insufficient for it does not introduce a real and tangible change.


For the Moslem Brotherhood, the amendment approved by government-ruling parliament is disappointed. Firstly, it puts hampering conditions for standing for the presidency. Secondly, it makes a distinction between the parties that are inactive, and the independents that are a massive power in the parliament. Thirdly, the supervisor committee over the election is governmental, disinterested. Therefore, the Moslem Brotherhood has submitted a memo to the parliament in which they mentioned that the amendment of article 77, related to the authorities and the term of the presidency, is also essential. Their proposals are:


–         The president shall be elected by a direct, secrete, multi-candidates ballot.


–         The presidential candidate shall obtain 20.000 signatures of the voters from different governorates.


–         A supreme committee shall be formed to supervise the election. It shall be competent to receive the applications of the candidates, to examine the lists of electorate, to take all pertaining measures till announcement of the outcome of the election. It shall consist of four justices in the court of cassation, headed by the president of the Supreme Constitutional Court.


–         The ballot shall be geographic-distributed, specified by the supervisory committee.


–         Any candidate who wins the absolute majority shall be the president. A run-off election, among the candidates who have the most of votes, if none of candidates gets the absolute majority, shall due to be held within 15days. Whoever wins the majority shall be the president.


–         The elected president shall abandon hisher party before hisher swearing-in.


 


The Moslem Brotherhood has not only presented this proposal but also has had effective discussions, in this respect. Finally, they have refused the formula of this amendment, in a sign of objection of excluding the common people from the political action.