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Appeals Submitted to Courts by Candidates' Lawyers Expose Rigged Parliament

Jurists demanded the invalidity of the current elected parliament, which was founded on violation of court orders amid the reluctance of the Higher Election Commission (HEC) to implement decisions to suspend the announcement of voting results in more than 120 districts as long as the legal quorum stipulated by the Constitution on the Parliament has not yet been completed.

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Jurists demanded the invalidity of the current elected parliament, which was founded on violation of court orders amid the reluctance of the Higher Election Commission (HEC) to implement decisions to suspend the announcement of voting results in more than 120 districts as long as the legal quorum stipulated by the Constitution on the Parliament has not yet been completed.
 
In his argument before the Administrative Court, former Muslim Brotherhood MP, Sobhi Saleh, emphasized: "The HEC violated the law and refused to implement the court orders, despite more than 2000 verdicts obliging it to do so on nomination in 120 electoral districts of parliament."
 
"State non-compliance with court orders which nullified the results of the first round and banned elections in the second round, challenges the rule of law," he added, noting that suspension of the partial implementation of decisions is a crime punishable by law as stipulated in the Penal Code. In addition, the HEC's declaration of election results in 120 constituencies are subject to court enforcement.
 
He maintained that the Parliament was born in the shadow of illegitimacy, as hundreds of court rulings have been ignored by state institutions whose primary task is to enforce the law.
 
In this regard, he calls upon the Egyptian authorities to respect the verdicts issued by competent judicial authorities, in order to uphold the rule of law and restore confidence in future electoral processes.
 
He also called for the abolition of the HEC's decisions on the announcement of the election results in several hotly-contested electoral districts due to its negative effects that make Parliament unconstitutional due to lack of quorum.
 
"According to Article 78 of the Constitution, the quorum of the PA is not fulfilled unless at least 350 members are elected out of the 508 members," former MP Saad Aboud said.
 
"If we exclude the 184 seats elected in the 92 constituencies in compliance with the court order, we will find that the legal quorum of the PA is not complete which makes it illegal and unconstitutional," Saleh said.
 
"The court described the elections in these constituencies as "unconstitutional" and "illegal," based on violations before and during the elections including the elimination of candidates from registration lists without justification," he added.
 
Ahmed Abu Baraka, former member of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) parliamentary bloc, said that the decisions to declare the voting results in violation of court rulings to suspend its results in more than 92 constituencies are void.
 
"The HEC is committed to implementing court rulings to suspend the balloting and decisions to announce its results in 92 districts," he said, making the current parliament void as it is violating court orders