The Egyptian uprising that ended a 30-year regime in 18 days has begun to foment decades ago. Though many events contributed to the uprising that Egypt witnessed, three main events have directly led to it. First, the April 6 Youth Movement emerged in 2008 as an Egyptian political Facebook group, following tactics of similar movements in Serbia, Georgia and the Ukraine. Comparable Facebook groups soon followed. Second, Mohamed ElBaradei, a Nobel Peace laureate and one of the country's leading democracy advocates, returned to Egypt in February 2010 as a potential candidate for the 2011 elections. Last but not least, the Egyptian parliamentary elections that took place in November 2010 were reportedly the most fraudulent ever. Mubarak’s party won more than 90 percent of the seats.
Indeed, the uprising embodies a continuing struggle for constitutionalism in Egypt. The three main events that led to the revolution are directly linked to constitutional dilemmas that hindered any serious political reform in Egypt over the past 30 years. The first constitutional dilemma was related to the official recognition of new political parties. Mubarak’s regime heavily controlled the recognition of any new political party and the activities of existing parties through the Political Parties Committee (PPC). As the Committee had excessive discretionary powers, it turned down many requests for official recognition of different political parties. Alternatively, many Facebook groups and civic organizations emerged to bring attention to social grievances that were politically ignored for a long time.
Second, Article 76 of the Egyptian 1971 Constitution, as amended in 2007, imposed draconian restrictions on both partisan and independent presidential candidates – a move allegedly tailored to guarantee that either Mubarak or his son would be the next president. Once Mohamed ElBaradei returned to Egypt, his followers formed the “National Coalition for Change” which called for free and fair elections, constitutional reforms and the abolishment of the emergency law. The Muslim Brotherhood, the biggest opposition bloc in the People's Assembly and the largest political Islam group in Egypt and the world, announced its support for Mr. ElBaradei’s demands “for amending the constitution to allow independents to run for president and abolishing [the] emergency law [that] curtails political activity and has been in place since 1981.”
Third dilemma is related to the constitutional safeguards of free and fair parliamentary elections. This issue has two dimensions. On the one hand, after the 2000 decision of the SCC stating that elections must be placed under full judicial supervision to comply with Article 88 of the Constitution, elections to the People’s Assembly and Shura Council in 2000 and 2005 were held under full judicial supervision. This resulted in an increase in the number of opposition seats in the parliament. The 2005 Parliamentary elections ended with the Muslim Brotherhood wining 20 percent of the seats of the People’s Assembly. However, as Mubarak in 2007, decided to amend Article 88 limiting the judicial supervision, the 2010 election ended with the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) winning more than 90 percent of the seats. On the other hand, Article 93 of the Constitution empowered the Court of Cassation to only investigate cases of electoral fraud. The final saying on the appeals is left to the Parliament itself. As the Parliament often ignored the recommendations of the Court of Cassation, activists called for an amendment of Article 93 to give the Court of Cassation the final say on the appeals.
The future of democracy in Egypt depends on the outcome of the current transition. In particular, Egyptians, in the next few months, have to decide on three basic issues that will define what kind of “political reform” they seek. These three basic issues are: the extent to which the next constitution reflects a national consensus, the manner in which constitutional disputes shall be resolved, and the identity of the responsible body politic that will be entrusted with guardianship of the constitution.
Archive_Written_2011_06_18_
