Egypt's Opposition Parties Call for Constitutional Amendments

Egyptian opposition parties on Saturday called for amending the constitution to give independent candidates bigger opportunity to run for presidency, state-run Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported.

The newly formed opposition alliance which comprises Al-Wafd, Tagammu, Nasserist and Democratic Front parties, kicked off on Saturday their first conference with calls to amend articles 76, 77 and 88 of the constitution which regulates candidacy to the presidency post and judicial supervision of elections.

Article 67 of the Egyptian constitution stipulates for an applicant to the presidency post to get the support of at least 250 elected members of the parliament and local popular councils on governorate level in order to be accepted as a candidate.

Article 77 sets the term of presidency at six years with possibility to re-elect one president for other successive terms, while article 88 stipulates that ballot should be conducted under the supervision of a judiciary organ.

The conferees called for forming a higher council from the parties' committees and the Higher Election Supervision Committee to supervise the upcoming elections.

They also called for referring election-related disputes to the Constitutional Court instead of Cassation Court.

However, representatives of the participant parties affirmed their intention to run for both parliamentary and presidential votes even if their calls for constitutional amendments were not met.

Some conferees proposed a delegation to be formed from the opposition parties to meet President Hosni Mubarak following his return from Germany to submit a memorandum of their requests to him.

The amendments aim to facilitate the engagement of independent candidates in the presidential elections.

Meanwhile, the participants called on former IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei to make clear whether he run for the upcoming elections or not.

ElBaradei sets introducing amendments to the constitution to guarantee the integrity of the election process as a condition for running for the presidency elections.

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