By: Dr. Mohammad No'man Galal
Member of the National Council for Human Rights

Egypt has lived under exceptional laws for about a century, starting from the Othman rule, then the British protection and even when the constitution of 1923 after declaring Egypt's independence, the four renowned reservations were put on it. Soon, the authority was seized from the people's hand after assassinating Sir Lee Stack, the Commander in chief, the habit of forging election was developed, after the fair election performed by Abdel Khaleq Tharwat, these election was an outstanding example of the fairness, for the Prime Minister, who performs the election falls. For more than half a century, forging the election has became a cardinal feature of the political regime in Egypt, in spite of the now and then flashes of democracy and liberty. The Emergency state prevailed the nation, either by an official declaration, or with the practical reality under short-term constitutions and constitutional statements, or under the rule of the Minority government, and excluding the majority party.

Thus, Egyptian democracy, constitution and even the legislative council lost one of its important features, which is accumulation, continuation and the ability to practice for a long term.

By the beginning of the year 2004, many important promising features have been shown in the Egyptian scene. Firstly, the political will has became more then ever, willing to make a political reform and democratic improvements, the clear evidence of that willingness is establishing the National Council for Human Rights, formed of outstanding group of the nation's men and women. Secondly, the whole world started to talk about human rights, good governance and free fair and periodical election, that could bring up pro-bono leaderships, who, in their performance, serve public welfare rather than taking orders and administrative instructions. Thirdly, the Middle East has become surged with reformative initiatives, internationally, like the American Initiative, regionally, like the Egyptian, the Saudi the Syrian and the Jordanian ones. Or already implemented initiatives, as happened in Bahrain, performing free election and forming parliaments, and in Algeria as well. In spite of the reservation on these different initiatives, (the theoretical ones, like the one taken by the Arab intellectuals issued by Alexandria conference, or the practical already -carried out initiatives like those taken by some Gulf- States- in which the word "democracy" was hardly spoken up-), these initiatives reflect two important facts: The first, that the scene has become ready for real democratic reform, a stop or putting a limit for forging election, that habit which defamed the Arab image with the irony of "the result is99%", and was worsened by Saddam Hussain, when he got a result of "100%" in the Iraqi election performed few months before his falling under the shoes of the occupying forces -backed Iraqis. The second, that the Arab political leaderships have became more ready to waive some of their jurisprudences and old fashioned practices based on the absolute power, they even began to raise reformative sayings.

The question raised hereby is how and from where shall we start? No doubt that the Arab world did not invent democracy. There are well known democratic practices to the whole world. India has followed a clear method, considering that India is a developing country suffers from many problems, but it kept practicing democracy for the existence of three factors: Firstly, the leadership's belief, since Nihro and his successors, that democracy with all its defects, is much more better than dictatorship with all its merits. Secondly, the people's willingness to vote for those whom they see appropriate, no matter the circumstances or the dangers. Thirdly, the parties and leaders are not thinking themselves immortal, they know that authority may vanish and may be back once again.

It is not the Minister of Interior, or any governmental body who is responsible for monitoring the election. It is the supreme Committee of Election, a governmental but independent institution, this is much more better than the so- called judicial supervision of election. As judges, with all the respect for their fairness and knowledge, are part of the executive authority, and follow the Ministry of Justice, which directly or indirectly, control their promotions and assigning decisions, even their distribution on all the governorates of Egypt. Thus, many practices in Egypt should be reviewed, concerning the independence of judiciary and the independence of judges, who are by no means fair, and loaded by a huge number of delayed cases, so we should not tire them with the election supervision.

The Egyptian parliament should issue a law to establish a High Committee whose members enjoy fairness, independence of all parties, to be responsible for supervising election lists, ballot boxes, and the results declaring. In brief, neither the Ministry of Interior, nor the Parliament should interfere in the election results and the membership validity, rather, the election should be the responsibility of an independent body, as in the Indian experiment, and other experiments in the developed countries, from which we can take examples.

Before performing democratic election, people are looking forward to abolishing the emergency law, which has been imposed for a long time. In fact, the emergency law has kept the nation's stability and security, in a critical phase of Egypt's history, when it was threatened by terrorism and civil commotions.

Now after achieving peace and security, the natural judge and the regular law must be the citizen's reference in assuring citizens' rights and insuring their enjoying these rights.

President Mubarak has taken the initiative of establishing the National Council for Human Rights, expecting that council to play its real role in developing these rights. If the experts and responsible officials do not mind abolishing the emergency law and the emergency state, there is a real hope in issuing the decision in the near future.