Egyptian opposition parties and figures have announced that they will boycott the Senate elections scheduled for August 11 and 12.
In a joint statement, the signatories affirmed that the climate surrounding these elections is far from the correct climate for conducting free and fair elections, especially with the large numbers of citizens in prisons without trial or even investigation, and with restrictions imposed on all tools of traditional and new media, and on freedoms of organization and assembly Peaceful.
The statement was signed by parties: Al Dustour, Al Karama, The Popular Alliance, Living and Freedom, in addition to public figures, most notably: Hamdeen Sabahi, George Ishaq, Abdul Jalil Mustafa and Mustafa Kamel Al Sayed.
The statement pointed out that the signatories reject the establishment of the Senate because the experience of the previous Shura Council did not add new life to political life in Egypt because of its limited powers in legislation and oversight of the executive authority, adding that the amendment of the constitution last year limited these powers as well, and the requirement for a member of this council to be eliminated He has a college degree only to make him literate.
He added that these amendments eliminated "the possibility that the Senate be a competency council that would appoint the lower house, which is the parliament in the performance of its duties. Rather, the experience of the current parliament with modest performance does not suggest at best that the performance of the Senate be much better than it."
The statement pointed out that the law on the basis of which the elections for the Senate are held, is a law that does not take any democratic state like it, because it requires that half of the seats be in the system of lists, provided that the list that gets 51% of the votes gets all the seats in the district, which is the abolition of the principle of justice Elections because it deprives the list that gets 49% of the votes of any seats.
He continued, "As is known in the history of the parliamentary elections in Egypt in light of the lack of freedom of activity of the parties, the list that will obtain the majority is the list supported by the government administration apparatus, which closes the door to a fair representation of all party forces. Given that the lists parties will also compete for Individual seats, it would end up with absolute control of the Senate. "
The signatories demonstrated the validity of their expectations of forming a unified list, ostensibly supervised by the pro-regime Future Party, by selecting parties and excluding other parties, and describing the first as supporting the state, reducing the state to the system of government.
It is noteworthy that on June 17, 2020, the Egyptian parliament approved the Senate law, provided that the parliament is composed of 300 members, two-thirds of its members are elected by direct, secret universal suffrage, and the president appoints the remaining third.
The law allocates no less than 10% of the total number of seats for women, and the election of the parliament is 100 seats in the individual system and 100 seats in the system of absolute closed lists, and parties and independents have the right to run in each of them.
According to constitutional amendments last year, the Senate is an alternative to the Shura Council, which was excluded in the 2014 constitution.