One day before the formation of the Supreme Parliamentary Election Committee (SPEC), the Cairo Court of Appeal issued an order to lift a ban on National Democratic Party (NDP) leaders running for parliamentary and municipal elections.

“Some NDP members were actually honest,” said Mohammed Fahmi Saleh, Secretary of the Republican People’s Party and a former NDP leader. He believes that the ban from running for elections must be based on a final criminal ruling against a particular person, while the general decision of a political ban is unconstitutional.

One day before the formation of the Supreme Parliamentary Election Committee (SPEC), the Cairo Court of Appeal issued an order to lift a ban on National Democratic Party (NDP) leaders running for parliamentary and municipal elections.

“Some NDP members were actually honest,” said Mohammed Fahmi Saleh, Secretary of the Republican People’s Party and a former NDP leader. He believes that the ban from running for elections must be based on a final criminal ruling against a particular person, while the general decision of a political ban is unconstitutional.

The Court of Appeal, says Saleh, issued its order to implement the Constitution and correct things since the lawsuit did not identify which individuals should be banned from practicing political rights.

Appeal

It all started when lawyer Tahani Ibrahim filed a suit against Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab, Minister of Interior Major General Mohammad Ibrahim and the attorney general demanding the prevention of all NDP leaders from running in all upcoming elections, especially the parliamentary elections. The Court of First Instance ruled in favor of her demands.

On July 14, however, the Cairo Court of Appeal accepted an appeal filed by Tawfiq Okasha head of the Faraeen Channel (among others), and cancelled the Court of First Instance’s ruling.

No longer constitutional

Tharwat Abdelaal, Public Law Professor at the Asyut University explained, saying no article of the 2014 Constitution provides for political exclusion. Thus, the article of the 2012 Constitution that bans NDP members from running for elections, on which the Court of First Instance based its ruling, has become null and void.

“In my opinion, this case has no merits because there is no legal or constitutional reason to ban NDP members from running for elections. Besides, the court that has jurisdiction in this case is the Administrative Court rather than the Court of First Instance,” he said.

Exclusion by the people rather than the law

Despite being an opposition leader under the NDP as the Secretary of the National Progressive Unionist Party, and although he took to the street on January 25 calling for the toppling of Hosni Mubarak’s regime, Hilal Abdulhamid does not accept political exclusion of Mubarak remnants.

“In the 2011 elections, NDP leaders were isolated by the people and they fell miserably. Other non-corrupt NDP candidates, though very few, were able to get a large number of voices, such as Mohammed Hamdi Dessouqi of Assyut, the only NDP leader who had a runoff with the candidate from Al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya and eventually lost,” said Abdulhamid.

A left-wing leader and a parliamentary candidate for the city of Sahel Selim, Abdulhamid argues that the people who gave the Brotherhood and Islamist currents more than 75 percent of the votes in the 2011 parliamentary elections only gave them 25 percent of the votes (around 13 million out of the total electorate estimated at 52 million).

Mohamed Morsi only won through the votes of the ‘lemon squeezers’ – a term called on those who elected Morsi not because they were convinced of him, but because they wanted a change, for better or worse.

A few months later, however, the people revolted against him and ousted him. “I think that the people will play the same role in the coming parliamentary elections and will exclude corrupt NDP members who have been trading on politics and also religious currents who have been trading on religion,” said Abdulhamid hopefully.

Square one

Assistant Secretary of the Wafd Party Aqeel Ismail Aqeel had reservations about giving NDP members the right to stand for parliamentary and municipal elections. “How can they participate in the formulation of Egypt’s future after two revolutions against corruption?” He wondered.

“Those who kept silent are not much different from those who killed innocent people on the pretext of legitimacy. We must respect the judiciary rulings and the people should isolate them through ballot boxes.”