Plans to issue a vote of no-confidence in Prime Minister Kamal Ganzouri’s government – initially spearheaded by the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Parity – appear to have been dropped following talks with the SCAF, in which participants including Parliamentary Speaker Saad al-Katatny agreed on the need for stability ahead of the presidential election. The Salafi Nour Party has backed down from its previous calls for a cabinet reshuffle, with spokesman Yossri Hamad now saying, “Now is not the right time to dissolve it, because its existence is critical to the drafting of a new constitution and upcoming presidential elections.” FJP MP Ahmed Abdel Rahman confirmed that his party has rejected the proposed cabinet reshuffle.
ELECTIONS:
1) The Higher Presidential Election Commission (HPEC) announced that second-generation Egyptians born and raised overseas will be eligible to vote in the presidential election. [al-Ahram, English, 3/14/2012]
2) A Muslim Brotherhood spokesperson dismissed media reports that the group has settled on the presidential candidate it will support as “completely false.” [al-Ahram, English, 3/14/2012]
3) The Salafi-led Nour Party’s executive bureau has decided to allow the party’s MPs to gather signatures endorsing only three Islamist presidential hopefuls until the party officially endorses a candidate. Members are allowed to collect signatures for either Salafi candidate Hazem Abu Ismail, former Muslim Brotherhood figure Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh or Mohamed Selim al-Awa. [al-Masry al-Youm, English, 3/14/2012]
4) Islamist presidential candidate Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh claimed that remnants of the former regime are trying to buy votes aided by foreign funds they have obtained from “the East and the West.” [al-Masry al-Youm, English, 3/14/2012]
NGOS:
5) Mostafa al-Naggar, an Adl Party MP, said the SCAF has “tried to raise its popularity by taking up the [NGO] case, but has failed in that effort.” He also said that the Egyptian judiciary is not independent and needs to be cleansed from within. [al-Shorouk, Arabic, 3/14/2012]
6) The Freedom and Justice Party’s legal committee has a completed a draft law regulating NGOs, in preparation for parliamentary discussion. According to a member of the committee, the bill will reduce the government’s ability to control and interfere with the boards of NGOs, and would only be authorized to intervene in the work of civil society groups “to maintain public order.” [al-Shorouk, Arabic, 3/14/2012]
PARLIAMENT:
7) Plans to issue a vote of no-confidence in Prime Minister Kamal Ganzouri’s government – initially spearheaded by the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Parity – appear to have been dropped following talks with the SCAF, in which participants including Parliamentary Speaker Saad al-Katatny agreed on the need for stability ahead of the presidential election. The Salafi Nour Party has backed down from its previous calls for a cabinet reshuffle, with spokesman Yossri Hamad now saying, “Now is not the right time to dissolve it, because its existence is critical to the drafting of a new constitution and upcoming presidential elections.” FJP MP Ahmed Abdel Rahman confirmed that his party has rejected the proposed cabinet reshuffle. [al-Ahram, English, 3/14/2012] [al-Masry al-Youm, Arabic, 3/14/2012]
8) The People’s Assembly Proposals and Complaints Committee discussed a bill proposed by Salafi MP Adel Azzazy that would apply “Heraba” Islamic legal penalties for crimes including robbery, murder, forcible taking of property with a weapon and vandalizing public facilities. The Heraba penalties outlined in the bill include execution in the case of convicted murders, or cutting one arm and one leg from opposite sides of the culprit’s body in the cases of robbery and forcible taking of property. Egyptian human rights activists have strongly condemned the draft legislation. [al-Masry al-Youm, English, 3/14/2012] [al-Youm al-Saba’a, Arabic, 3/14/2012]
FOREIGN POLICY:
9) Egyptian officials successfully brokered a truce between Israel and militants based in the Gaza Strip, ending a four-day cross-border battle. The terms of the truce remained unclear, but the agreement resulted in the cessation of Israeli airstrikes on Monday night a dramatic decrease in rocket fire from Gaza. [Washington Post, English, 3/14/2012]
Photo Credit: Reuters
Image: ganzouri.jpg