two egyptian women in a polling station (from the site www.lemonde.fr)
President Mubarak, who has been in power for about a twenty-five years, has now proposed a referendum. The population doesn’t participate: the number of Egyptians that voted is quite low.
For the first time since he took power a quarter of a century ago Mr Mubarak allowed his opponents to criticise him and campaign for alternative parties.
Since the murder of president Anouar Sadate, in 1981 (a quarter of a century ago),
Egypt is under the emergency law. Amnesty International today called on Egyptian members of parliament to reject proposed amendments to the country’s constitution, which the organization described as the most serious undermining of human rights safeguards in Egypt since the state of emergency was re-imposed in 1981. The organization Amnesty International called the population to boycott the referendum. The Muslim Brotherhood, an Egyptian party, obtain one fifth of the elect at the parliament in 2005. As the new constitutional project forbid parties based on religion, President Mubarak seems to be trying to take away the political opposition.
Hamdy Hassan, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, says: “Seven hundred of our members have been arrested for participating in street demonstrations. Eight out of twelve members of our politburo are behind bars. The Government is trying to reduce the space in which we can move’.
Moreover, President Mubarak shows clearly that he would like his son to succeed him. Democracy seems to be an endangered species in Egypt.
Principal topics of the constitutional reform:
Article 5: Parties or political activities with a religious base or reference are forbidden.
Article 136: The president is not obliged to solicit the nation opinion by means of a referendum to dissolve the parliament.
Article 179: The authorities are allowed to arrest suspects, rummage their domicile, read their letter and wiretap them without judiciary mandate.
Moreover, the president can decide to make military tribunals responsible for the judgment. of the persons suspected of terrorism.
To have more information:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article678100.ece
http://news.amnesty.org/index/ENGMDE120082007
