The legal and constitutional adviser to Egypt's Interim Presidency said Wednesday that the recently-approved law regulating presidential elections could be amended.
The statements by Ali Awad come after a number of political forces objected to an article in the law immunizing the results announced by the Presidential Elections Commission from judicial challenge, a fact which politicians fear would facilitate forgery. He had erlier defended the article and stated that there was no going back on the law.
“Everything is possible”, Awad said in statements to London-based Al-Hayat, asked whether it would be possible to yield to the vast majority of political forces calling for changes to the law.
He revealed that Interim President Adly Mansour was going to convene Wednesday with political forces, including presidential runner Hamdeen Sabbahi, to try to achieve “consensus” over the law.
Mohamed al-Oraby, chairman of the Congress Party, said the planned meeting suggests a tendency towards amending the controversial law. “We hoped that would have been done before approving the law so as to avoid confusion on the political scene.”
He said his party is against the immunity of the elections commission to avoid “domestic or foreign suspicions to the electoral process.”
Younis Makhyoun, chairman of the Salafi Nour Party, said he was going to attend the meeting and call for changes to three articles, most notably the one on the commission’s immunity.
Mohamed Farid Tasnaghu, chairman of the State Council, which had reviewed the draft law before referring it to the presidency, said “the Cabinet and the Presidency have the right to exercise their constitutional competencies by making any amendments to the law.”
He noted that the council’s amendments to the law are “nonbinding.”
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
