A group of political and legal activists intend to file a lawsuit in which they will call for members of the dissolved National Democratic Party (NDP) to be banned from running in any future polls and prevented from taking over any leading state posts. The claimants argued that NDP members had destroyed political life in Egypt during the era of former president Hosni Mubarak, and so should be deprived of taking part in the stage of re-building Egypt.
Accusations of rigging elections, issuing faulty legislation and gaining ill- gotten wealth were levelled at a vast majority of NDP members.
"They can never be trusted and should no longer be present on the political scene," said Hossam Eissa, a leading Nasserist member and one of the claimants. According to Eissa, NDP parliamentary members who endorsed the faulty constitutional amendments in 2005 committed a "horrible crime" against Egypt and against the republican system and should never be pardoned. "Besides, it's illogical to oust the regime while keeping its remnants," Eissa said, warning that the presence of those elements constitutes a direct threat to the 25 January Revolution.
In the lawsuit, to be filed in the Administrative Court, the group of activists asks the government to ban NDP members from practicing politics. The claimants based their argument on the treason law passed a few months after the 1952 Revolution. That law deprived all those who took over any administrative or ministerial posts and who were members of parliament and of municipalities before the time of former president Gamal Abdel-Nasser of taking part in political life.
While adopting the demand of the claimants prominent legal expert Salah Sadeq believes that it would be difficult to apply the treason law now. The treason law was applied to certain categories, namely those who were in charge of senior state posts since 1939 and until the outbreak of the 1952 Revolution. Sadeq said the law, passed in specific circumstances that accompanied the 1952 Revolution, cannot be applied today.
However, Sadeq stressed that the Higher Council of the Armed Forces (HCAF), now running the country, should respond to the demands of the public and issue similar legislation. "It's time to make revolutionary decisions rather than abide by the literal interpretation of the articles of the law," Sadeq said.
Sadeq suggested that the ban be limited to five years and should be applied to all NDP members. "None of the NDP members should be exempted. Those who claim to have a clean record should appeal before a neutral judicial body. If they manage to prove they were not involved in any form of political corruption during the time of the former regime, they will be allowed to practice their political rights," Sadeq said.
Not everyone agrees with the legal concept upon which the claimants relied upon in their lawsuit. While enjoying a large number of supporters, the call for depriving NDP members of their political rights was rejected by another group of legal experts.
Judge Ahmed Mekki, deputy chief justice of the Cassation Court, said such call contradicts the principles of the 25 January Revolution which pressed for freedom and democracy. "Excluding any political group from participating in political life is not among the principles of the revolution. Accusations of political corruption should not be generalised upon all NDP members, especially since some of its members were known for their honourable stances."
Mekki defined the cases in which a citizen would be deprived of practising his political rights. "Having a criminal record is the only case stated in the law which imposes such ban on practising political rights," Mekki noted.
"There is no legal basis which authorises the government to deprive a person of practising his or her political rights. It is the law which defines how and when a person loses such a right," professor of constitutional law Atef El-Banna said, noting that having a criminal record is the only legal barrier preventing the practice of political rights."
El-Banna argued that if new legislation would ban whoever was corrupt from practising his rights, such legislation would not be applied to all NDP members, "since not all of them are guilty of such a charge.
"Anyway, whether or not there is a ban, the ousting of the former regime has ended the NDP and its members. I do not think any of the NDP members will have a political career in the next stage." Said El-Banna: "Why don't we leave it to the public to say what it wants in the coming free polls? I'm dead sure that remnants of the NDP are going to be overthrown."
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