Amendment Approved by Parliament

Today, Maglis al-Sh`ab approved the restrictive legislation regarding Egypt's presidential elections by a 405-for, 49-against majority. That is a 89.2% margin of victory for the draft. No serious amendments were made. Since this is breaking, there is not much analysis. This will come in the following days. See al-Jazeera's coverage for the results of the parliamentary vote. It passed in the Shura Council two days ago with a 241-for, 23-against/abstention. This is a 91.3% majority.

As it looks now, Ayman Nor will be able to run. Not that it makes much difference because they still have the forgery charges hanging over his head. Ayman's trial is due to start on 27 June. There will likely be a break in the middle of the trial and a resumption in September (the presumed month of the presidential election).

But what if the government leaves him be, drops the charges, and lets him run (while carrying on with disruptive behavior until the election and then rigging the results). If Nor got an absurdly low amount of votes (such as 8% of the vote), this could be advertised as strengthening Mubarak's hand. This would galvanize the opposition but I am not sure that would matter.

Well now the amendment of article 76 of the constitution has been institutionally handled, it will be put to a popular referendum (yes/no) vote in two weeks. I am guessing we see more low-90s results.

Comments

[Mena]

Hi Josh, Thanks for your coverage of the ammendment of article 76 !

Question
1/Is the election open to all parties, not only those currently with seats in parliament ?
2/ Did the electoral commission part of the draft pass without any change ? 5 judges and 5 national personalities ? And is it final that you can´t appeal to any higher instance ? I´m thinking specifically about the disolvement of the 1984 parliament in Feb 1987, due to the unconstitutionality of the 1984 election laws, discriminating against independents runing for parliament.
4/ Nothing changed about holding elections on one singe day ? ("American style"), i was hoping that at least what was gained during the parliamentary elections in 2000, when the judges where allowed to follow procedure on election day inside the polling stations and as a consequense, elections run for four weeks.

[Mena]

Thanks Ahmed !
It´s a very sad day indeed.

[Liam]

Nice job Josh keeping on top of all that!
Just out of interest, aljazeera.net has an opinion poll on the Egyptian elections. You can vote Mubarak, Nur, Erian (Brotherhood) or other.
Latest, Mubarak on 17 percent, Nur on 12.6 percent, Essam el-Erian of the Brotherhood on 45.5 percent. Other is 24.9 percent.
I suspect many are thinking Amr Moussa when voting other.
Maybe Erian and Brotherhood supporters have been organising a mass vote, but still the results are kind of interesting. But i suspect many of those who actually think Mubarak is where it's at dont check out jazeera on the web much.

[MM]

Yes, the Poll at Jazeera is very interesting! I am surprised Al-Erian did not garner a much higher percentage, since Al-Jazeera is an advocate netwrok for the Brotherhood.

MM

[jp]

Actually Josh, I think your site is pretty fair in terms of coverage of Egypt. Well done.

[Rosemary]

Thank you for the news. Is there any way you could give me more information? I have the same questions as Mena. I do not al Jazeera, so I would prefer to ask you. Have a great day.

[Rosemary]

Pardon me, I meant to say I do not "trust" al Jazeera. Thank you.