A recent parliamentary amendment to the political rights law excluding members of the Mubarak regime from running for office is an “abuse of power,” a leading Egyptian human rights organization said Sunday, calling on the ruling military council to reject the amendment.
In a statement, the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights said Parliament could not deprive anyone of political rights without a court ruling. No punishment should be imposed without a crime, it added.
The statement noted that according to the Constitutional Declaration that governs the country, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces has the sole right to approve laws, which means that the council has the right to reject the amendment without having to provide a reason.
The legislative amendment, according to the statement, is not in the public’s best interest. The political rights law would become defective if it targeted the interests of any specific group, party or individual, or harmed anyone, it said.
The statement also said the amended law would clearly violate human rights and international standards of political and civil rights, at the top of which is the UN-adopted Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The Egyptian rights group called on the SCAF to alter the amendment in a way that would disqualify presidential hopefuls from running only after a court rules against them, and said the law should be enforced after being published in the Egyptian Gazette, the bulletin where new government laws are published, according to constitutional guidelines.
Translated from Al-Masry Al-Youm
