Saturday, September 19, 2020
Press release
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The Egyptian Coalition for Human Rights and Development Elections Observatory on Saturday issued a study on the legislative environment for the 2020 Lower House elections “The impact of the 2015 parliament laws on the Egyptian vote in 2020.”
The study dealt with several important topics in the upcoming elections to the House of Representatives, the most important of which are:
The legal framework governing the nomination process
According to the study, the legal framework governing the upcoming parliamentary elections is based on five mainpillars:
Law directly regulating political rights, the law of the House of Representatives, the quorum of winning elections, the necessity of continuing the electoral character
Checkup
The National Electoral Commission, headed by Chancellor Lachin Ibrahim, Vice-President of the Court of Cassation, issued resolution 57 of 2020 on the signing of medical examinations on applicants for candidates with disabilities in the elections to the House ofRepresentatives.
The decision included the necessary medical examinations and tests to run for the House of Representatives elections from Sept. 10 to 26.
Civil society organizations from following up on elections
The study dealt with the decisions issued by the High Electoral Commission, which ensure that organizations working in the field of election follow-up, human rights, and support for democracy are allowed to follow up on the upcoming parliamentary elections following the conditions of acceptance of the organizations approved by the Commission while allowing organizations that have obtained previous permits not to apply again.
The legislative environment before the House of Representatives and the most important laws it passed during its term
The study dealt with the fact that the House of Representatives passed during five legislative chapters a large number of important laws that serve the citizen, including the Civil Service Act, traffic law, the anti-terrorism law, money laundering, and other important laws, most of which were mainly related to the life of the citizen directly
The total number of laws passed before and after the adoption of the Constitution was more than 380, and the number of resolutions in the laws of 340 laws since the adoption of the Constitution, in January 2014.
In 2016, the House of Representatives succeeded in passing the state policy, the general development plan, passing 334 laws passed in the transition, working the internal regulations of the House of Representatives, and playing its legislative role, throughout the first session.
During the first legislative chapter, the total number of laws passed by Parliament reached 27, including 25 submitted by the Government and only 2 by deputies
In 2017 and 2018, the House of Representatives passed a package of important laws and projects, the most prominent of which was the amendment to the Civil Status Act, which requires government service providers to obtain data on the national number of beneficiaries, as well as the Comprehensive Health Insurance Act and the Terrorist Entities Identification Act.
Also, one of the most important achievements of parliament in 2018 was the important event for parliament that for the third time he participated in the approval of the cabinet reshuffle. The first time the House of Representatives participated in approving the cabinet reshuffle was September 6, 2016. The second time when the House of Representatives approved a cabinet reshuffle was on February 14, 2017, which included 9 portfolios and 4 deputy ministers, Engineer Sherif Ismail, prime minister, participated in this session.
In two years, there were 700 bills, led by the new universal health insurance, and the House of Representatives succeeded in passing laws in the face of high prices, including a bill granting a special allowance to state workers who are not addressed to the Civil Service Act, an exceptionally high premium, as well as an increase in pensions and the amendment of some provisions of social insurance laws, such as the adoption of a percentage of funds balances, private accounts and units of a special nature of the state treasury.
Reasons and solutions for poor participation
According to the study, some reasons limit participation and may be unintended, such as lack of interest in politics, laziness, preoccupation with the requirements of daily life, the belief that his voice will not differentiate, and there is no leave on election day and referendum, personal reasons such as illness or aging and difficulty of movement. etc
The study concluded with several recommendations, the most important of which are:
State institutions, parties, and political forces must move from now on if we want to increase citizen participation in the next parliament elections by focusing on several factors as follows:
1. Balanced and professional media messages to inform citizens of the importance of participation and guarantees of integrity, the role of parliament in its chambers, and how to exercise the right to vote.
2. Shed media light on the performance of the current parliament in vital files affecting the life of the citizen and the importance of activating that performance through the next parliament.
3. Building trust relations between the citizen and the parties to the electoral process to feel the feasibility of participation and the importance of his voice.
4. The parties move outside their headquarters and hold mass conferences to communicate with citizens.
5. Formulating a vision of public policies capable of addressing the problems of citizens posed by the parties and committed to them in their party platforms and parliamentary performance.
