Dr. Bahaa Helmy Writes: Those Barred from Candidacy and Those Deprived of the Vote

Visions for the Future, 10/1/2018 Those Barred from Candidacy and Those Deprived of the Vote Dr. Bahaa Helmy writes bahaabb@hotmail.com On the occasion of the Supreme Elections Committee's announcement of the dates for candidacy and for the 2018 presidential election, we find that the 2014 Constitution, the highest and supreme law of the land, has set conditions for candidacy for the office of President of the Republic in a manner that preserves the dignity and stature of the office of President of Egypt, and has referred the other conditions to the law. The Constitution requires that anyone who runs for President of the Republic be an Egyptian born to Egyptian parents; that neither he, nor either of his parents, nor his spouse has held the nationality of another country; that he enjoy his civil and political rights; that he has performed military service or been legally exempted from it; and that he be no less than forty years of age. This means that the candidate must be of Egyptian origin, he and his family belonging to their country; that he must not have previously held another nationality; that he must be in good physical and mental health; that he must have performed military service or been exempted from it and not be a draft evader; and that he must be a committed person of disciplined conduct and behaviour consistent with legal, moral and human values and principles. The law added certain other supplementary and detailed conditions for candidacy for the presidency of the Republic, stipulating that the candidate must hold a higher education degree and must not have been convicted of a felony or of an offence involving moral turpitude or breach of trust, even if he has been rehabilitated. It is self-evident that the law should bar anyone convicted of a felony or of an offence involving moral turpitude or breach of trust, given what such crimes reveal in terms of degraded conduct, crooked character and loss of values and principles. Examples of this type of crime include bribery, rape, theft, fraud, forgery, breach of trust, espionage and others. If the Civil Service Law requires, for the appointment of a public servant, that he be of commendable conduct and good reputation, that he not have previously been sentenced to a custodial penalty for an offence involving moral turpitude or breach of trust, and that he not have previously been dismissed from service by a judgment or a disciplinary decision, then all the more reason that those convicted of offences involving moral turpitude and breach of trust be barred from running for the office of President of the Republic. As for those deprived of the vote, the law has defined them in the following categories: persons under legal interdiction/ persons suffering from a psychological or mental disorder/ anyone who has committed the crime of tax evasion/ anyone who has corrupted political life/ anyone against whom a judgment has been issued confiscating his property/ dismissal from government service, the public sector or the public business sector for committing an offence involving moral turpitude or breach of trust/ anyone who has committed one of the bankruptcy offences/ persons convicted by a final judgment of a felony/ anyone against whom a final judgment has been issued punishing him for election offences/ anyone against whom a judgment of imprisonment has been issued for theft or corruption of morals – the deprivation lasting 5 years unless suspended by a court judgment. As for the requirements for accepting a candidacy for the presidency of the Republic, the candidate must be endorsed by at least twenty members of the House of Representatives, or be supported by no fewer than twenty-five thousand citizens in at least fifteen governorates, with a minimum of one thousand supporters from each of them. Hence, those barred from candidacy are anyone convicted of an offence involving moral turpitude or breach of trust, or anyone dismissed from government service, the public sector or the business sector for such an offence, while deprivation of the vote in elections arises from any of the reasons mentioned above. We see the importance of informing citizens of their rights and duties through conscious media programmes and content, as well as enriching the national education curricula to raise awareness among our children in schools at the various stages of the importance of exercising the right to vote and of elections, in order to entrench the values of democracy and elevate their patriotic spirit, in addition to fostering their commitment to national duty and to casting their votes in the various elections and referendums.