[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 284 Referred in Senate (RFS)]
109th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. CON. RES. 284
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
December 19, 2005
Received
January 27, 2006
Referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations
_______________________________________________________________________
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
Expressing the sense of Congress with respect to the 2005 presidential
and parliamentary elections in Egypt.
Whereas promoting freedom and democracy is a foreign policy and national
security priority of the United States;
Whereas free, fair, and transparent elections constitute a foundation of any
meaningful democracy;
Whereas Egypt is the largest Arab nation comprising over half the Arab world's
population;
Whereas Congress has long supported Egypt as a partner for peace and stands
ready to support Egypt's emergence as a democracy and free market
economy;
Whereas a successful democracy in Egypt would definitely dispel the notion that
democracy cannot succeed in the Arab Muslim world;
Whereas in his 2005 State of the Union Address, President George W. Bush stated
that ``the great and proud nation of Egypt, which showed the way toward
peace in the Middle East, can now show the way toward democracy in the
Middle East'';
Whereas in her June 20, 2005, remarks at the American University in Cairo,
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stated: ``[T]he Egyptian Government
must fulfill the promise it has made to its people--and to the entire
world--by giving its citizens the freedom to choose. Egypt's elections,
including the Parliamentary elections, must meet objective standards
that define every free election.'';
Whereas on February 26, 2005, Egyptian President Mubarak proposed to amend the
Egyptian Constitution to allow for Egypt's first ever multi-candidate
presidential election;
Whereas in May 2005, President Bush stated that Egypt's presidential election
should proceed with international monitors and with rules that allow for
a real campaign;
Whereas Egypt prohibited international monitoring in the presidential election,
calling such action an infringement on its national sovereignty;
Whereas domestic monitoring of the election became a major point of contention
between the government, the judiciary, and civil society organizations;
Whereas in May 2005, the Judges Club, an unofficial union for judges, took the
provisional decision to boycott the election if their demand for a truly
independent judiciary was not met;
Whereas the Judges Club initially insisted that the 9,000 to 10,000 judges were
in no position to monitor the election if plans proceeded for polling at
54,000 stations on one day;
Whereas the government responded to their demands by grouping polling stations
to decrease their number to about 10,000, more or less matching the
number of available judges;
Whereas on September 2, 2005, a majority of the general assembly of the Judges
Club decided that the judges would supervise the election and report any
irregularities;
Whereas several coalitions of Egyptian civil society organizations demanded
access to polling stations on election day and successfully secured
court rulings granting them such access;
Whereas the Presidential Election Council, citing its constitutional authority
to oversee the election process, reportedly ignored the court order for
several days, before they granted some nongovernmental organizations
access to polling stations a few hours before the polls opened;
Whereas the presidential campaign ran from August 17 to September 4, 2005;
Whereas the presidential election held on September 7, 2005, was largely
peaceful, but reportedly marred by low turnout, general confusion over
election procedures, alleged manipulation by government authorities, and
other inconsistencies;
Whereas the presidential election was a potentially important step toward
democratic reform in Egypt and a test of President Mubarak's pledge to
open the country's authoritarian political system;
Whereas Mr. Mubarak promised to allow during the presidential campaign a free
press and independent judiciary, lift emergency laws that stifle
political activity, reduce presidential powers in favor of a more freely
elected parliament, and allow a slow but steady transition to a liberal
democracy;
Whereas parliamentary elections were held in Egypt in November and December
2005;
Whereas several local human rights and civil society organizations issued a
joint statement declaring unease over the Egyptian Government's
criticism of independent judges, stating that the government was trying
to deprive the organizations of the right of free expression;
Whereas reports prepared by judges who monitored the parliamentary elections
indicated that numerous violations occurred in the second and third
rounds of voting, including the physical prevention of voters from
casting their votes, the closure of roads and streets leading to polling
stations, and assaults on several judges as they oversaw the elections
and protested the security agencies measures to prevent voters from
reaching polling stations;
Whereas other Egyptian nongovernmental election monitors also have complained
that security forces blocked thousands of eligible voters from entering
polling stations during the parliamentary elections;
Whereas poll monitors and human rights organizations reported that violence
initiated by Egyptian security forces, coupled with wide-scale arrests,
contributed to poor turnout across the country during the parliamentary
elections;
Whereas violence during the parliamentary elections, including reports of
excessive force by Egyptian security services, resulted in the deaths of
several demonstrators and the wounding of dozens more;
Whereas Ayman Nour, Mr. Mubarak's only serious challenger in the presidential
election, was declared in the parliamentary elections to have lost his
seat--in a Cairo district that elected him twice before--to a former
state security official with reported ties to President Mubarak;
Whereas it was reported that Mr. Nour, a secular liberal, was harassed
repeatedly by Mr. Mubarak's proxies and slandered by the Egyptian media,
and local election observers reported numerous irregularities in Mr.
Nour's Cairo district;
Whereas the Egyptian Government's apparent manipulation of the electoral system
resulted in a weakening of the secular opposition and a strengthening of
the Islamist opposition in Egypt; and
Whereas it is in the national interests of the United States and Egypt that
Egypt be governed by a truly representative, pluralist, and legitimate
national parliament: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring),
That Congress--
(1) recognizes the presidential election held on September
7, 2005, as a potential first step toward greater political
reforms in Egypt;
(2) expresses grave concern over the widely reported
irregularities during the Egyptian presidential election and
parliamentary elections held in November and December 2005,
including interference by Egyptian security forces, and the
apparent failure of the Government of Egypt to ensure that the
elections were free, fair, and transparent;
(3) calls on the Government of Egypt to take immediate
steps to address these reported violations of the fundamental
freedoms of the Egyptian people and hold those responsible for
such violations accountable;
(4) recognizes that the development of a democratically-
elected representative and empowered Egyptian national
parliament is a fundamental reform needed to permit real
progress toward the rule of law and democracy in Egypt;
(5) calls on the Government of Egypt to separate the
apparatus of the National Democratic Party from the operations
of government, to divest all government holdings in Egyptian
media, and to end the government monopoly over printing and
distribution of newspapers;
(6) calls on the Government of Egypt to repeal the 1977
emergency law which took effect in 1981, as promised by
President Mubarak, and in the development of any future anti-
terrorism legislation to allow peaceful, constitutional
political activities, including public meetings and
demonstrations, and to allow full parliamentary review of any
such legislation;
(7) expresses disappointment over the failure of the
Government of Egypt to ensure that the presidential election
was free, fair, and transparent;
(8) calls on the Government of Egypt, in future elections,
to--
(A) ensure supervision by the judiciary of the
election process across the country and at all levels;
(B) ensure the presence of accredited
representatives of all competing parties and
independent candidates at polling stations and during
the vote-counting; and
(C) allow local and international election monitors
full access and accreditation;
(9) urges the President of the United States to take into
account the progress achieved by the Government of Egypt in
meeting the goals outlined in this resolution when
determining--
(A) the type and nature of United States diplomatic
engagement with the Government of Egypt; and
(B) the type and level of assistance to be
requested for the Government of Egypt;
(10) given the responsibility of the Government of Egypt
for the outcome of the 2005 presidential and parliamentary
elections, calls on the Government of Egypt not to use the
strength of the Islamist opposition in Egypt to justify the
failure of the Egyptian Government to comply with its
international human rights obligations or to undertake the
reforms to which it has committed; and
(11) urges the President and other officers of the
Government of the United States to speak with unmistakable
clarity in expressing the disappointment of the people and
Government of the United States with respect to the behavior of
the Government of Egypt during the 2005 presidential and
parliamentary elections.
Passed the House of Representatives December 19
(legislative day, December 18), 2005.
Attest:
KAREN L. HAAS,
Clerk.