Al Wafd, p.7, (14-12-2006)

The Indian Commission, a constitutional authority

An independent authority that controls all stages of elections and its decisions are final

By: Dina Tawfiq

Forming an independent commission to control elections is a notion adopted by leaders in the regime and taken from the Indian experiment. It is an attempt to circumvent the constitution and to call off constitutional Article 88 to punish the judges who discovered rigging in the last parliamentary elections.

Those who support such a commission should scrupulously check how the Indian election commission was formed and how it works and issues decisions. While the Indian election commission is guaranteed independence by the constitution, the Egyptian regime seeks to form a similar commission that seems to be independent, but in reality incorporates guarantees for manipulation and rigging in elections without being noticed by the judiciary.

We have got the file of the Indian independent election commission from the Embassy of India in Cairo. We submitted this file to legal experts and judges to explore their opinions.

Dr. Mostafa Afifi, professor of constitutional law, Tanta University, said: “Undoubtedly, the election authority in India is a good model and it is different from what is happening in Egypt. While this authority is independent in India, election commissions in Egypt, whether presidential or parliamentary, have been formed upon decisions from the executive power. These commissions might be privileged by several immunities. Still, they could be manipulated in terms of selecting their members who might be biased to the executive power. To guarantee independence to election commissions as the case in India, election commission members should be selected on account of their positions as, for instance, the chief justice of the Supreme Court or the constitutional court. In this way, the president’s power to appoint persons in the commission would be regulated by certain conditions. India has also excelled by applying an electronic voting system to prevent rigging and guarantee secrecy. The regime in India established a democratic system for elections. We hope such a system would be applied in Egypt. To achieve this aim and to ensure independence of the election commission, all categories of the society should be represented in this commission.

Counsellor Mohammed Ibrahim Khalil, Deputy Chief Justice of the Court of Cassation says: “Members of the election authority in India are appointed by the president who works in consultation with the cabinet and the prime minister. This is not possible in Egypt because the atmosphere is corrupt and selection of the election commission members by the president or the prime minister is not made on objective basis. The Indian system is based on such constitutional principles as the people’s independence and their ability to express their opinions freely. The evidence for that is the defeat of the party of the previous prime minister in the Indian elections. In Egypt, voting is sometimes conducted under pressures. During elections, curfew is imposed in some villages and the police do not interfere to stop the bullies who spoil the elections. How, then, can we expect a free and fair elections as in India?

We need some controls. The election authority members could have been chosen, for example, from among elected members of syndicates or state authorities. But, such a procedure is difficult as most syndicates in Egypt are overridden by constraints. Therefore, before conducting elections, voters should have freedom to express their opinions. Otherwise, elections would be valueless.

****