On 29 June a ruling will be made on a lawsuit filed by People’s Assembly member Mohamed el-Omda which calls for allowing all who fulfil “reasonable conditions” to run in the upcoming presidential election, it was announced by the Administrative Court yesterday.
El-Omda described Article 76 of the Constitution as unconstitutional and imposing unfair conditions on the nomination of independent candidates in the presidential election.
El-Omda said the National Democratic Party always wins the overwhelming majority of seats in both houses of parliament, due to election results being rigged. Because of this, any independent candidate who wishes to run for the presidency will not be able to obtain the necessary number of signatures stipulated by Article 76 of the Constitution, and Article 76 is therefore unconstitutional since it violates Article 62, which states that all Egyptian citizens enjoy the right to nominate themselves for any election.
In a related development, a number of political activists and experts announced their launch of a popular campaign, titled “Participate,” to select nominees for the presidency.
Abdel Ghaffar Shokr, the campaign’s coordinator, called on Egyptians to choose their next president via the campaign’s website.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
