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

On the occasion of the Supreme Elections Committee announcing the dates for candidacy and the 2018 presidential election, we find that the 2014 Constitution, the highest and supreme law of the land, has laid down conditions for running for the office of President of the Republic in a manner that preserves the prestige and dignity of the office of President of Egypt, and has referred the remaining conditions to the law.

The Constitution requires that whoever 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, belonging to his country together with his family; must not have previously held another nationality; must be in good physical and mental health; must have performed military service or been exempted from it rather than having evaded conscription; and must be a person of integrity, of disciplined conduct and of behaviour consistent with legal, moral and humane values and principles.

The law added certain other supplementary and detailed conditions for running for the presidency, providing that the candidate must hold a university degree and must not have been convicted of a felony or of a crime involving moral turpitude or breach of trust, even if he has since been rehabilitated.

It is self-evident that the law should bar anyone convicted of a felony or of a crime 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 a crime involving moral turpitude or breach of trust, and that he not have previously been dismissed from service by a judgment or disciplinary decision, then all the more reason that those convicted of crimes 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 specified them in the following categories: persons under legal interdiction/ persons suffering from a psychological or mental disorder/ those who have committed the crime of tax evasion/ those who have corrupted political life/ those against whom a judgment has been issued confiscating their property/ those dismissed from government service, the public sector or the public business sector for committing a crime involving moral turpitude or breach of trust/ those who have committed one of the bankruptcy offences/ those convicted by a final judgment of a felony/ those against whom a final judgment has been issued punishing them for electoral offences/ those against whom a sentence of imprisonment has been issued for a crime of theft or corruption of morals- and the deprivation lasts for 5 years unless suspended by a court judgment.

As for the requirements for accepting a candidacy for the presidency, 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.

Accordingly, those barred from running are all who have been convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude or breach of trust, or who have been dismissed from government service, the public sector or the business sector for such a crime, while those deprived of voting in elections are so for any of the reasons mentioned above. We see the importance of informing citizens of their rights and duties through conscious media curricula and programmes, as well as enriching national education curricula to make our children in schools, at the various stages, aware of the importance of exercising the right to vote and of elections, in order to entrench the values of democracy and elevate their spirit of patriotism, in addition to their commitment to national duty and to casting their votes in the various elections and referendums.