| Law No. 177/ 2005 Regulating Political Parties System |
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| Wednesday, 21 January 2009 16:41 |
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Law No. 177/ 2005 regulating political parties system In the name of the people, the President of the Republic, The People's Assembly has passed this law, the text of which is rendered hereunder, and we hereby promulgate it Article one The texts of Article 4 and the Item (first) of Article No. 5, the fore part of Article 6 and item (2) thereof and Articles 7,8,9,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18 of Law No. 40/1977 on political parties system, shall be replaced by the following: Article 4: For a political party to be established or maintained, it shall satisfy the following conditions: i: The party's title should not be identical or similar to that of an existing party. ii: The party's principles, goals, platforms, policies or modalities of exercising its activities shall not contradict the Constitution or requirements of maintaining national unity, social peace and the democratic system. iii: The party's platform shall constitute an addition to the political life according to specific methods and goals. iv: In its principles or platforms or in practicing its activities or selecting its leaderships or members the party shall not be based on religious, class, sectarian, categorical, geographical grounds or on manipulating religious feelings or discrimination on account of origin or creed. v: The party's tools shall not imply the creation of any military or para-military formations of any kind. VI: The party shall not pose as a branch of a foreign party or political organization. VII: The party's principles, goals, methods, organizations and means and sources of funding shall be made public. Article 5: "I: Party's title." Article 6: "Subject to the provisions of the above- mentioned two articles, he who affiliates to the membership of any political party shall be required to: 1-……………………………; 2- have access to his political rights; and 3- …………………………………. . Article 7: A notice in writing shall be submitted to the chairman of Political Parties Affairs Committee stipulated in Article 8 hereof as regards the establishment of the party signed by at least 1000 constituent members whose signatures shall be officially authenticated. The members shall be drawn from at least ten governorates with no less than fifty members from each. To this notice shall be attached all documents related to the party, particularly its statute, by-laws, and names of its constituent members as well as a statement of the amount and sources funds raised to establish the party and the name of the members' agent acting on their behalf in the party establishing procedures. The notice on the establishment of the party and the attached documents shall be submitted to the committee referred to in the above-mentioned article within 15 days from the date of submitting such notice" Article 8: The Political Parties Affairs Committee shall be composed as follows: 1- the Speaker of the Shura Council, as chairman; 2- Minister of Interior; 3- Minister for the People's Assembly Affairs; 4- three former heads or deputy heads of the judiciary bodies who are not affiliated to any political party; and 5-three public figures who are not affiliated to any political party, as members. The selection of the members stipulated in Items 4&5 shall be made by a Presidential decree for three years renewable. The Committee shall have the competence to examine and consider notices of the establishments of the parties according to the provisions of this law, let alone the other competencies stipulated therein. The meeting of the Committee shall be valid only in the presence of its chairman and at least 6 members. Decisions of the Committee shall be issued by the majority of the votes of the members present. In case of equal votes, the chairman's shall be the casting vote. To exercise its competencies, the Committee may demand much documents, papers, data and clarifications at it deems as necessary, from the concerned parties as much time as it determines. It may also demand any documents, papers, data or information from any official or public body and it may conduct on its own or through a sub-committee of its own such research as it may deem appropriate. It may also commision any such official bodies as it may deem appropriate to conduct or study necessary to reach the truth about matters submitted thereto. The founders of the party or their agent acting on their behalf in establishments procedures shall publish, at their own expense founders included in the establishment notice in two daily widely circulates newspapers within 30 days of notification date, in the format prepared by the Political Parties Affairs Committee for this purpose. The Committee shall be informed within 30 days of the publication date that this has been done. The Committee has to issue its decision on the establishment of the party within the 90 days following the date of submitting the notice of establishment. The decision by the Committee objecting the establishment of the party should be supported with reasons therefor after hearing necessary clarifications from the concerned parties. The expiry of the period referred to without a decision issued by the Committee on the establishment of the party shall be deemed a decision of no objection to its establishment. The chairman of the Committee shall notify the agents of applicants for establishment of the objection decision as well as the reasons therefor by a registered letter under acknowledgement of receipt within latest of 10 days from the date of date of issuing of the decision. Decisions issued by the Committee either by non-objection or objection to the establishment of the party shall be published in the Official Gazette as well as in two widely circulated daily newspapers within the period specified in the preceding paragraph. Applicants for establishing the party may, within the thirty days following the publication of the objection decision in the Official Gazette, challenge this decision for annulment before the first circuit of the Supreme Administrative Court chaired by the Head of the State Council. In this case, a similar number of public figures selected by a decision by Minister of Justice subjected to the endorsement of the Supreme Council for Judicial Authorities from among the lists of the public figures known for their efficiency and good reputation, aged no less than 40 years, excluding members of legislative authority, shall join its formation. The Court shall decide on the challenge within a latest four months from the date of presenting its petition. Article 9: The party shall be a private judicial person and shall exercises its political activity starting the day following the publication of Political Parties Affairs Committee's decision of no objection to its establishment; starting the day following the expiry of the ninety day-period stipulated in Article 8 hereof or starting the date of issuance by the Supreme Administrative Court of a ruling annulling the decision objecting to the party's establishment. Save for the administrative procedures ending up with submission of the notice stipulated in Article 7 of hereof, no partisan activity, deed or act in the name of the party may be exercised before the party has acquired a judicial person status. Article 11: The resources of the party shall consist in subscriptions of its members, financial support received from the State and the donations by Egyptian natural persons; in addition to proceeds of investing its funds in non-commercial aspects as set forth by its statute. However, investing the party funding in issuing newspapers or utilizing publishing or print houses shall not be deemed commercial aspect for the purposes of this article should their main goal be to serve the purposes of the party. The party may not accept any contribution, privilege or benefit from any foreigner, any foreign or international body or from any judicial person type even if it enjoys Egyptian citizenship. The party shall notify at the end of every year the Central Audit Authority of the contribution it has received as well as the details of donors. The amount of contribution given to parties shall not to be from any tax income". Article 15: " Without prejudice to the right to issue newspapers according to the provisions stipulated in Law No. 96 of 1996 on regulating the press, every party shall have the right to issue maximum two newspapers to express its opinions without the requirement to obtain the license stipulated in the aforementioned Law." Article 16: "The party shall notify the chairman of the Political Parties Affairs Committee of the formation of its higher body according to its statute system or by-laws, in addition to any decision issued by the party to change its head or any member of its higher body or the dissolution or merger of the party or any amendment to its statute or by-law within 10 days from the date of issuing the formation or decision by registered letter. In proving of the capacity of the party's candidate from among the members of its higher body to the presidential elections, only the data contain in the notice referred to shall be considered, unless otherwise proved." Article 17: The chairman of the Political Parties Affairs Committee may, subject to approval thereby, request the Supreme Administrative Court, whose composed in the manner stipulated in Article 8 hereof, to the dissolve and to liquidate the funds of the party and to designate the party to which it will devolve. Provided, it should have proved on the list of the Socialist Attorney General's report following on the investigation made thereby at the request of the Political Parties Affairs Committee, that has been missing or abated any of the conditions stipulated in Article 4 hereof. The court shall set a date for a session to consider this request within the seven days following serving it to the head of the party at its headquarters. The court shall decide on the request within latest thirty days from the date of the aforementioned session. The Committee may, as may be required for the national interest and in case of urgency, temporarily order the suspension of the activities of the party, any of its leaderships or any delinquent decision or act made thereby. This is in the case set out in the first paragraph of this Article or if it has resulted from such violation or in the event it has been proven by the Committee, based on a report by the Socialist Attorney General on the strength of an investigation made thereby, that the party or any of its leaderships or members have violate the principles stipulated in Article 4 of this Law. The suspension decision shall go into effect starting the date of its issuance and shall be published in the Official Gazette and in one widely circulated daily newspaper. The head of the party shall be notified at its headquarters within three days of the date of its issuance by a registered letter under acknowledgement of receipt. The Committee shall submit the suspension order to the Supreme Administrative Court, as composed in the manner referred to in the first paragraph of this Article within a latest seven days from the date of its issuance requesting a ruling on suspension. Otherwise, the matter will be deem as nil and void. The Court shall issue its ruling on this request within 15 days from the date of submitting the matter thereto. It shall decide on the extent of the validity of the temporal order of suspension whenever it sees any reason to defer consideration of the request. The party may appeal against the suspension before the court after the lapse of three months from date of ruling. Should the appeal be rejected, the party may lodge a new appeal after the lapse of three months from date of ruling rejecting the appeal. The appeal shall be made by means of a report to be delivered to the court clerk department. The head of the court shall set a date for a session to consider the appeal, which date shall be notified to the plaintiff party and every concerned party. The court shall decision on the appeal within 15 days from the date of determining it. Article 18: The State shall provide to political party on annual financial support, whose appropriations shall be included into the budget of the Shura Council. The Political Parties Affairs Committee shall undertake allocations as follows: 1- LE 100,000 annually for every party for 10 years. Beyond this period, for a party to be eligible to such amount, it shall have at least one seat won by one of its candidates in the elections of the People's Assembly or the Shura Council; and 2- LE 5,000 for every seat won by the party's candidate in the elections of the People' Assembly or the Shura Council up to a maximum of 500,000 for each party. Article 2: To Law no. 40/1977 two new articles shall be added numbered 9 bis and 9 bis (A) whose texts shall be as follows: Article 9 bis: The freedom of practicing political activity by the party shall be guaranteed and shall be exercised within the bounds of the law; To this end, it shall be entitled to specifically: 1- promote by lawful means its ideals and disseminate information on its activity; 2- participate in referenda and public elections; and 3- use State-owned audio-visual mass media, particularly during the election campaign, according to regulating rules. Article 9 bis A: In practicing its activities as set out in Article 9 bis hereof, a political party shall enjoy all guarantee ensuring freedom of such practice, in particular the following: 1- inadmissibility of requiring disclosure of partisan membership in the official documents, and 2- equal treatment for members of the competor parties and non-discrimination among them on account of reasons attributable to the membership of a certain party. Article 3: This law shall be published in the Official Gazette, and it shall be go into effect starting the day following its publication. This law shall stamped with the seal of the State, and be enacted as one of its laws. Issued at the Presidency of the Republic on 29 Jumaddi Al-Ola 1426 H/ July 6, 2005 A.D. Hosni Mubarak |
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Legal Library Egypt Law No. 177/ 2005 Regulating Political Parties System
Legal Library Egypt Law No. 177/ 2005 Regulating Political Parties System