{"id":23518,"date":"2018-02-12T18:57:54","date_gmt":"2018-02-12T16:57:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maatpeace.us.to\/?p=23518"},"modified":"2022-08-10T16:16:35","modified_gmt":"2022-08-10T14:16:35","slug":"23518","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maatpeace.org\/en\/23518\/","title":{"rendered":"The stage of collecting support and running for the Egyptian presidential elections"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The stage of collecting support and running for the Egyptian presidential elections <\/u><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

Political controversy surrounds the scene <\/u><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>A report issued by the Presidential Election Observatory of the Maat Foundation for Peace, Development and Human Rights <\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

February 12, 2018<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Introduction:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The National Elections Authority in Egypt closed the door to candidacy after it was opened for ten days during the period from 20 - 29 January 2018, and then announced the initial list of potential candidates, and began to receive appeals, which it will work to decide on in the coming days, then announce the final list of candidates. And their electoral symbols on February 24, 2018, after which we will move to a new stage of the presidential elections, which is the stage of election campaigning.<\/p>\n

The candidacy stage has ended with the presence of only two candidates, one of whom is the current president, Mr. Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, and his rival is the head of the Egyptian Al-Ghad Party, Mr. Moussa Mostafa Moussa, after the nomination initiatives of other personalities ended - the Egyptian street was counting them among the potential candidates - To their exit away from the race, either because of withdrawal in protest to what they described as \u201cviolations and violations marred the stage,\u201d as is the case with the human rights lawyer Khaled Ali and former parliamentarian Muhammad Anwar Sadat, or for legal reasons accompanied by a great controversy in the Egyptian street, as is the case with Mr. Sami Annan, the former Chief of Staff of the Egyptian Armed Forces, who is currently under investigation on charges of violating military laws in announcing his candidacy for the presidency.<\/p>\n

The stage of collecting the support and recommendations of the representatives of Parliament and running for the elections was full of successive political events, events that left a wide debate in the Egyptian political street, and created a state of intense polarization among those who see some practices and procedures that affected some candidates as a derogation from the integrity of the electoral process and led to a limitation. The competition between the current president and a competing candidate who until recently was among the president\u2019s strongest supporters and supporters, as well as the circumstances surrounding his presentation of his papers for candidacy at the last moments of confusion and suspicion, and others who defend the electoral process from a procedural and political perspective and throw the ball into the court of the opposition forces that they see - According to their assessment, it failed to present serious competitors who enjoy popularity and sound legal position, and we believe that the state of controversy and polarization will have a direct impact on the rates of participation in the electoral process during the next phase.<\/p>\n

From a legal, institutional and procedural perspective, the previous phase did not witness meaningful complaints about the performance of the National Elections Commission in its first broad tasks months after its formation, as the commission\u2019s behavior was characterized by impartiality and professionalism, and it was not noticed bias for one party at the expense of the other, and it seemed to be able to master its organizational and logistical tools. However, there are complaints raised by two of the potential candidates who later withdrew (Khaled Ali and Anwar Sadat) stating that the committee did not respond to their requests related to obtaining a statement of the number of agencies that the first obtained, or to investigate the complaints sent by the second to investigate harassment. And preventing him from reserving a hall to announce his candidacy for the presidency, however, the Commission responded to these complaints that it was not legally interested in providing statistics on the proxies submitted to the candidate, but it did not issue an explanation regarding the complaint of Mr. Anwar Sadat.<\/p>\n

The last phase - including the one preceding the announcement of the election schedule - was marked by the presence of a large number of campaigns in support of the current President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, as widespread propaganda activities were carried out, many of which continued until the candidacy stage and after the announcement of the initial lists of candidates, and the observers and observers see The electoral scene shows that many of these campaigns and propaganda activities carry violations of the election law, especially since some of them witnessed the participation of executive officials in propaganda conferences for a specific candidate, which constitutes an explicit violation of the rules governing the electoral process.<\/p>\n

In this context, the Presidential Election Observatory of the Maat Foundation "Egypt 2018" issues its fourth report on following up the procedures and environment surrounding the electoral process during the candidacy period, collecting popular support from citizens and the recommendation of parliament representatives, which includes an analysis of the legislative and organizational aspects, as well as a monitoring of the political features of the stage. And the relevant remarks, and finally the recommendations that must be taken to improve the procedures of the electoral process.<\/p>\n

The legal and regulatory framework for the stage of collecting support and submitting applications for candidacy<\/u><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

First, the laws governing the stage of collecting support and submitting applications for candidacy<\/u><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The actual atmosphere for the Egyptian presidential elections began with the announcement by the National Elections Authority that the door for candidacy will be opened on the twentieth of January 2018, in accordance with Article 40 of the Constitution, which affirmed that the procedures for electing the President of the Republic should begin at least 120 days before the end of the presidential term, and the final result will be announced before The end of this period is at least thirty days, which is the period approved by the constitution.<\/p>\n

After ten days have passed since the door for candidacy was opened, the National Elections Commission closed the door to candidacy on January 29, 2018, and Article 142 of the constitution has set an important condition that is a breaking point for anyone intending to run, and it is the same condition that was mentioned in the Presidential Elections Law in its article The second is that the candidate must obtain at least 20 recommendations from the members of Parliament, or that at least twenty-five thousand citizens who have the right to vote in at least fifteen governorates must support him, with a minimum of one thousand supporters from each of them.<\/p>\n

The first article of the law organizing the presidential elections stipulated that the candidate must be an Egyptian born to Egyptian parents, not be pregnant, or any of his parents, or the nationality of another country, have a high qualification, enjoy civil and political rights, and have performed military service Or exempted from it by law, and his age is not less than forty years of age on the day the door is opened. According to the constitution, the new president must be officially announced on May 2, 2018, that is, thirty days before the end of the current president's term, which is scheduled for June 3, 2018.<\/p>\n

Second, the National Elections Commission<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The presidential elections this time come after the formation of the National Election Commission approved by the Egyptian constitution, which is the body that will fully manage the electoral process, and which issued Resolution No. 2 of 2018 regarding the detailed schedule for the presidential elections. After the candidacy window was closed on January 29, 2018, the Commission announced The tentative list of candidates' names, in compliance with the timetable, included the current president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who is running for a second term, as well as the potential candidate Musa Mustafa Musa, head of the Ghad Party C.<\/p>\n

The commission also announced the opening of the door to receive the candidates 'objections on February 1 and 2, 2018, and after examining these applications and deciding on them on February 5, 2018, and after a series of appeals and adjudicating them, the commission will announce the final list of candidates' names and electoral symbols on February 24, 2018. After that, let's move on to a new stage of the presidential election.<\/p>\n

During the last period, and since the announcement of the opening of the door for candidacy until the announcement of the initial list of candidates' names, the Commission issued a number of decisions related to the candidacy phase, including specifying the papers and documents required for the candidate, as well as setting the rules and procedures governing the support of citizens for those who want to run, which were defined by Resolution No. 5 of the year 2018, the most prominent of which is that a citizen may not support a candidate more than once, and more than one willing to run.<\/p>\n

In Decision No. 6 of 2018, the Commission announced the right of the voter who is in a governorate other than the governorate in which his electoral residence is located according to his fixed place of residence with the national ID card, to cast his vote in the election of the President of the Republic before one of the election sub-committees within the governorate in which he will be present during polling days It is a very important decision that will undoubtedly contribute to increasing the voting rate, given that a large number of citizens are expatriates from the governorate of their birth and joined work places outside their home governorates, and since returning to their place of birth was difficult during the voting period, they chose to refrain from participating. The commission\u2019s decision will assist those wishing to cast their votes, regardless of their location.<\/p>\n

The Commission\u2019s Decision No. 7 of 2018 stipulates what regulates the process of recommending parliamentarians, as the decision ensured that a single representative would not recommend more than one candidate, a decision that prevented a number of potential candidates from running in the election race due to the support of the majority of parliament members for the current president, Abd Al-Fattah al-Sisi, and thus there was only a small number of recommendations remaining, would not have been on an agreement to support another candidate, were it not for the success of the candidate Musa Mustafa Musa at the last moment in obtaining the recommendation of 20 deputies.<\/p>\n

The Commission also issued Decision No. 13 of 2018, regarding the objection of any person who applied to run for candidacy against any other candidacy request, so that the Commission examines the objections and appeals and responds to them within a time period specified by the Commission. It also allowed those who were excluded from candidacy to submit a grievance and be answered also in A time period set by the Authority on February 9, 2018.<\/p>\n

Electoral competition ... political controversy surrounding the scene<\/span> <\/strong><\/p>\n

At a time when the political forces were busy defining their vision of supporting a particular candidate, a number of potential candidates faced many obstacles during the liberation of candidacy agencies from citizens, which caused many complaints and accusations, whether against the National Elections Authority, or against other candidates, This eventually caused the reluctance of a number of personalities who had already started collecting agencies<\/p>\n

\u00a0The presidential elections almost reached a stage of complete non-competition, before the head of the al-Ghad party left to compete with Sisi after obtaining 20 recommendations from parliament members, and despite the large number of rumors about this candidate, which we will discuss in detail later, but the stage of collecting agencies settled on the existence of Two potential candidates for the presidential election battle.<\/p>\n

The most striking political scenes in the electoral process are the circumstances of the emergence of a rival candidate for the current president at the last minute, and following the spread of impressions stating that there are those seeking to present a competing candidate to fulfill the \u201ccompetitive form\u201d of the electoral process without paying attention to the essence of this competition, especially since the rival candidate (Moussa Mustafa Moussa) obtained the remembrance of the members of the House of Representatives quickly and in the last moments and easily compared to other potential candidates who announced that the doors of Parliament were closed in front of them, in addition to the presidential candidate himself, as mentioned above, who was responsible for a huge campaign in support of the current president strongly even hours before announcing his candidacy, to the point that His personal Facebook page carried a picture of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.<\/p>\n

As soon as he submitted his candidacy papers, Musa Mustafa Moussa received a major media and political attack, in addition to his accusation that he supported President Sisi and submitted only to preserve the president's image in the presidential elections. The attack on Musa included disclosing the existence of cases and court rulings preventing his candidacy, and doubts about his academic qualification, Some of these accusations are the subject of a legal communication that a lawyer submitted a few days ago to the competent authorities.<\/p>\n

Part of the political controversy went to the presidential candidate who did not complete the candidacy procedures <\/strong>Lieutenant General Sami Anan, who officially announced his candidacy on the twentieth of January 2018, in addition to announcing the appointment of Counselor Hisham Geneina, former head of the Central Auditing Organization, as his deputy for human rights and constitution activation, and Dr. Hazem Hosni, professor at the Faculty of Economics and Political Science, as his deputy for knowledge wealth And political and economic empowerment and a spokesman. This announcement sparked a lot of reactions between the accusations of Sami Anan of joining the Brotherhood and seeking to win their side, and the accusations of forgery, and on January 23, 2018, that is, less than three days after Annan announced his candidacy, the armed forces charged, through an official statement, three charges. Against Anan for committing legal violations, namely:<\/p>\n