State Council: No immunity for presidential elections commission

The State Council is due to submit the Presidential Elections Law on Tuesday, but the draft remains mired in controversy.

One divisive point is legal immunization of the decisions of the High Elections Committee. Magdy al-Agaty, the head of legislation at the State Council, told the privately-owned ONtv channel on Monday that he had previously demanded that the committee's decision not be immunized.

"We suggested assigning a special [judicial unit] to look into appeals on the decisions of the High Elections Commission. The State Council insists that the committee's decisions are not immunized, but the final decision will be taken by the presidential [branch]," he was quoted as saying by the privately-owned newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm.

Speaking to the state-run Al-Ahram, Ahmed Ashour, a judge with the State Lawsuits Authority, said that the committee's immunization violates the newly passed Constitution in Article 97.

The 2012 Presidential Election Commission's decisions were immunized, however. In those elections, ousted President Mohamed Morsi was declared winner in a runoff with Ahmad Shafiq, deposed President Hosni Mubarak's last prime minister.

Aspects of the draft law mentioned by Agaty include allowing prisoners currently in jail pending trial to run as candidates, and raising the cap for campaign spending to LE20 million in the first round and LE5 million in the second.

The presidential elections should be held within a maximum period of 90 days from the announcement of the results of the constitutional referendum.