EGYPT: ‘Return to a Police State’

By Adam Morrow Reprint | | Print |

Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani

CAIRO, Apr 9 2007 (IPS) - The amendment of 34 articles of the constitution makes a “police state” of Egypt, opposition leaders say.

“These amendments represent a return to the police state, government terrorism and the notorious ‘midnight visit’ days,” Hamdi Hasan, spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood bloc in parliament told IPS. “They will also ensure that all future elections are rigged.”

Independent MP Kamal Ahmed declared that the changes would “lead Egypt back to an era of oppression and political tyranny.”

Opponents of the amendments are particularly concerned with revisions granting the government broad powers of arrest, limiting judicial supervision over national elections, and establishing who can and cannot run in parliamentary and presidential elections.

The change that has provoked the most outrage among the opposition and rights groups is the amendment of Article 179 of the national charter, which gives government security agencies wide powers to “combat terrorism”. Critics warn that the revised article essentially overrides other articles of the constitution guaranteeing citizens protection against random arrest, search and surveillance.

“This amendment neutralises some of the most important constitutional articles protecting basic freedoms,” Yehia al-Gemel, professor of constitutional law at Cairo University told IPS. He cited articles 41, 44 and 45 in particular, which provide guarantees against search, surveillance and seizure in the absence of judicial warrants.

Al-Gemal went on to call the amendment “the worst and most dangerous constitutional change in Egypt’s history.”

Additionally, the revised article gives the executive branch authority to refer suspects accused of vaguely defined “terrorist crimes” to military tribunals. This, say critics, will only serve to make permanent a longstanding Emergency Law in place since 1981.

“This article will essentially turn the current Emergency Law from a temporary measure into a permanent fixture,” said Hasan.

Even the National Council for Human Rights – a government body – has joined the chorus of criticism against the amendment.

“The council emphatically rejects the amendment of Article 179 and…reiterates the importance of trying citizens in front of normal, non-military courts,” council head and former UN secretary general Boutros Boutros-Ghali said days before the Mar. 26 referendum.

Spokesmen for the ruling party, however, have consistently defended the change, saying the article would only be invoked in certain extreme cases.

“The amended article won’t weaken the basic rights of the citizen and will only be used in cases of urgency,” national assembly president and ruling party stalwart Fathi Sorour was quoted as saying in the state press Apr. 5. He went on to explain that, in cases involving perceived threats to national security, police and security services would be allowed to apply for judicial permission after an arrest.

Opponents of the changes also condemn the amendment of Article 88, which removes full judicial oversight over presidential and parliamentary elections. According to the terms of the revised article, judges will only supervise voting at primary polling stations, leaving thousands of secondary polling stations untended.

“The amended article does away with the idea of having a judge at every ballot box and puts responsibility for electoral oversight into the hands of a government-appointed Higher Council for Judicial Supervision,” Atef al-Banna, professor of constitutional law at Cairo University told IPS.

The contentious amendment comes despite a 2000 ruling from the Supreme Constitutional Court requiring that judges be present at all polling stations.

“After this change, elections can be easily rigged in favour of the ruling party like they were prior to the 2000 ruling,” al-Banna added.

Independent MPs and the Muslim Brotherhood are equally concerned with changes made to articles regulating the electoral process.

The amendment of Article 62, for example, allows for a shift in the parliamentary electoral system from one based on individual candidates to one based largely on party lists. The amendment of Article 76, meanwhile, stipulates that presidential candidates must belong to legal political parties that currently have at least one representative in both houses of parliament.

According to spokesmen for the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), the latter two amendments will encourage participation by legal political parties and increase voter turnout. Analysts, however, say the changes specifically target independent contenders and candidates fielded by the unlicensed Muslim Brotherhood, whose representatives must run as independents in elections.

“The revised Article 62 will allow the ruling party to limit the number of independent MPs, which includes Muslim Brotherhood representatives,” Diaa Rashwan, an analyst at the government-run al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies told IPS. “The revised Article 76, meanwhile, will confine presidential candidates in future elections to representatives of the three biggest legal parties, which includes the NDP.”

Constitutional issues have been at the forefront of public debate since December, when President Hosni Mubarak called for the changes in advance of a “new era of political reform”. Despite unanimous resistance by opposition and independent MPs, the changes were approved by the NDP-dominated parliament on Mar. 19 and passed in a popular referendum – during which numerous voting irregularities were reported – one week later.