CAIRO: Political powers criticized the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces’ (SCAF) overdue approval of the Political Corruption law, saying the decision was only taken to appease protesters and bring an end to ongoing clashes in Tahrir Square.
SCAF approved the law Monday, expected to exclude former regime figures from political participation.
Meanwhile, death toll from confrontations between protesters and police around Egypt has reached 28, the health ministry said on Tuesday, as the violence raged into a fourth straight day.
The issued law, previously called treachery law before it was amended, aims at prohibiting anyone convicted by the criminal court of corrupting the political life from participating in the country’s politics, either by voting or nomination for parliament, barring them from holding positions of leadership and joining any political party for five successive years maximum.
Representatives of the various political powers agreed that it was too late for SCAF to issue the law; only a week before parliamentary elections due on Nov.28.
"This law has no value anymore; it is a born-dead law. If it were based on court rulings, then anyone who has evidence can file a case to exclude another who corrupted the political life," Nabil Zaki, spokesman of the oldest left Party Al-Tagammu, said pointing out that this procedure did not require a new law.
Zaki said that the voters became aware of those who defend their interests and those who work against them.
Tarek Al-Malt, spokesman of Al-Wasat Party, agrees that people will be able to exclude the remnants of the former regime from entering the parliament by not voting for them.
Parties’ leaders said that SCAF is walking in the footsteps of the former regime.
"The ruling officials are the same as the old regime. They take steps forward when it is already late … and now [people] are calling for higher demands," said Margret Azer, prominent leader at Al-Wafd Party.
Azer insisted that the SCAF has failed to meet the demands of the transitional period, prompting protesters to call for it to step down.
While Al-Malt agreed that the military council is acting too late, Zaki said that officials are used to delaying required decisions.
Essam Al-Erian, vice head of the Muslim Brotherhood’s (MB) Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) who is also responsible for the political bureau in the Brotherhood, refused to comment on the law saying that the MB is focusing on the bigger event which is the clashes taking place in Tahrir Square and the upcoming elections regardless of "other matters."
Clearer steps
Meanwhile, Yasser El-Hawary, member of the Youth for Justice and Freedom movement, said that there is now a second revolution, referring to the protests in Tahrir, which requires clearer steps.
"The SCAF should have stated clearly that the leaders of the dissolved National Democratic Party (NDP) or those who ran as candidates on the party’s lists for parliament would be excluded for two parliamentary sessions," he said.
Azer said that the term "political corruption" is too vague and can be applied on anyone even the figures of opposition during Mubarak’s reign.
"There should be clear criteria that identify this term," she told DNE.
Al-Malt sees the law as good in principle. "The prosecution can file complaints, judiciary would be in charge of the cases, the ruling would not be subject to appeals and the elected figures who would be proven guilty can lose their membership in parliament," he said.
Azer added that she is confused about the law and when it is due to be applied effectively.
"Is it a law for future elections or for the coming ones?" she asked.
She believes that if it were applied on the upcoming elections, it would cause chaos.
"Courts take a long time to issue verdicts; it might even be issued after the elections take place. This would lead convicted figures to lose their membership in the parliament and we will have to hold complementary elections," she said stressing that the complementary elections can take years as anyone can file a case at any point.
Abdel-Ghaffar Shokr, of the Popular Socialist Coalition Party, told DNE that the law is useless at the moment as the legal procedures of implementing it are typically slow; yet, it is a fair law from a legal point of view.
"They endorsed it under the pressure of the people and to calm the Tahrir clashes," he said.
