The Safeguarding of the Process of Running For the Presidency Office a Comparative Study Between French and Egyptian Regimes (PART I)

Authors

Sharif Youssef Khater, Mansoura University- College of LawFollow

Abstract

Our research deals with the criteria applied to the Republic presidential nomination process whether inFranceor inEgypt. This research is presented in two chapters where the first one has beenallocated to studying the nomination application for the presidency of the Republic whether inFranceorEgypt, and the second one has beenallocated to studying the competent authority which accepts the presidential nomination applications.

As to the nomination application for the presidency of the Republic in France, we found that the French legislator has set strict criteria for accepting presidential candidates. Thereupon, the fundamentallaw issued on the 18^th of June, 1976 which amended the law issued on the 6^th of November, 1962 stipulated the necessity of the presidential candidate’s obtaining the signatures of five hundred proposing the nomination citizens who have been specified exclusively by the legislator. This number was one hundred before the law was amended.

On the other hand, the Egyptian legislator has distinguished between the presidential candidates that are independent citizens; i.e., those who do not belong to a certain political party, and the presidential candidates who belong to politicalparties. The independent candidate must obtain the support of 250 members of the People's assembly, Shura and the People's localcouncils. However, the third paragraph of Article 76 of the Constitution as amended on the 26^th of March, 2007 stipulated the obtaining of at least 3% (instead of 5 %) of the total seats of the elected members in the People's Assembly and Shura or the equivalent in one of them when political parties nominate a candidate. Moreover, the legislator has stipulated two conditions for such nominations. First, that the party has to have been established and in operation for at least five consecutive years before it announces a presidential candidate. Second, the party should have been active for a period of five years prior to announcing the nomination of its candidate.

The second chapter isallocated to studying the competent authority which accepts the nomination applications whether inFranceor inEgypt. We find that the French legislator has awarded the ConstitutionalCouncil the mission of accepting and checking the nomination applications in addition to publicizing the list of presidential candidates in order to achieve a state of transparency and to give the persons excluded from nomination a chance to challenge the Constitutional Council decision during a very short period of time.

However in Egypt, a commission has been established and called the Commission of the presidential elections; it accepts and checks the nomination applications for presidency in addition to publicizing the list of candidates. It has been noted that the decision made by the Commission of the presidential elections is final and unchallengeable by any of the normal or unusual challenge methods. The decisions of the Commission may not be subjected to construing or suspension

Recommended Citation

Khater, Sharif Youssef (2009) "The Safeguarding of the Process of Running For the Presidency Office a Comparative Study Between French and Egyptian Regimes (PART I)," UAEU Law Journal: Vol. 2009: No. 37, Article 7.
Available at: https://scholarworks.uaeu.ac.ae/sharia_and_law/vol2009/iss37/7