Archive for Saad al-Katatny

 

One day after he lost the election for president of the Freedom and Justice Party, Essam al-Erian asked President Mohamed Morsy to remove him from his position as presidential adviser.

Erian, who is also vice president of the party, asked Saad al-Katatny, the new president of the FJP, to conduct elections for the positions of party vice president and secretary general.

Katatny won 67 percent of the votes for the FJP presidency.

Erian wrote on Twitter Saturday, “I asked the president today to remove me from the advisory panel and I asked the party to elect a new deputy and secretary general.”

Ahmed Sobie, the media spokesperson for the FJP and the head of Erian’s office, told Al-Masry Al-Youm that Erian wanted to save Katatny any embarrassment when picking his aides.

Katatny authorized Erian to manage party affairs while he and his wife perform the Hajj in Saudi Arabia, the former tweeted on Sunday.

Erian tweeted in response that he is working today in Katatny’s absence at the party’s administrative headquarters.

A source within the Brotherhood said Erian is angry that the Guidance Bureau did not support him and added that Deputy Supreme Guide Khairat al-Shater directed members to vote for Katatny.

The same source added that there are strong disagreements between Erian and several party leaders as well as tensions between Brotherhood and FJP leaders following the result of the election.

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm

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The Muslim Brotherhood's political party will seek an inclusive majority in Egypt's parliament through alliances with rivals, its new chief said, addressing fears of a narrowly Islamist outcome to the uprising against autocratic rule.

The Freedom and Justice Party elected Saad al-Katatny, 61, as FJP leader on Friday, replacing Mohamed Morsy who has gone on to become the first elected president of Egypt.

Since the fall last year of strongman President Hosni Mubarak, Islamists have moved to the forefront of Egyptian politics thanks to organizational skills and finances unmatched by their liberal and leftist competitors.

But during the first post-Mubarak Parliament, dissolved by court order in June, liberal deputies sometimes walked out over what they saw as moves to ram through an Islamist legislative agenda without regard to Egypt's politically diverse society.

Speaking to Reuters in his first interview as FJP leader, Katatny pledged a broader political approach before the next parliamentary vote he said could take place around March 2013.

"Since the revolution, the FJP has worked to benefit everyone but there could have been more participation allowed to other parties before a decision was taken. This would have made everyone happy," Katatny said.

"At times, political forces complained not because of the decision but because they were not part of the decision-making process. We will set out to change this," the 61-year-old microbiologist said.

Katatny did not rule out a bloc with the ultraconservative Islamist Nour Party and liberal parties, but underlined that any alliance would be based on common policies, not ideology.

"The Freedom and Justice Party aims through an alliance with other political groups to achieve 50 plus one percent in the new assembly. But this time there will be a comprehensive programme that alliance members will draw up. This will ensure that once elected the majority bloc will work together inside parliament."

Katatny was the speaker of the first Parliament formed after Mubarak's overthrow, a short-lived assembly dominated by the FJP and ultraconservative Salafis.

Now the head of the 400,000-strong FJP must convince a wary public it can be trusted to govern fairly for all Egyptians.

Many Egyptians and rights groups are concerned that a new constitution being drawn up should not impose an Islamist vision of society out of keeping with Egypt's confessional complexity.

But the process has been hindered by a tug-of-war between Islamists, liberals and others in the 100-strong Constituent Assembly drawing up the document.

Now that the FJP has governing responsibility, many count on Katatny, who joined the Islamist movement in 1979, to transform it into a party less dependent on the Brotherhood's logistical, financial and political support, Brotherhood sources say.

"Until now the FJP's grassroots structure has not been as widespread or unified as the Muslim Brotherhood's grassroots base … so the party is constantly counting on the Brotherhood to rally big numbers during elections," said Katatny.

"The Brotherhood can within an hour rally huge numbers to public places. The FJP cannot do this yet. We want the Brotherhood to support the FJP but not interfere in its decision making process. This is possible."

In the previous Parliament, the FJP relied entirely on the Brotherhood for voter support, which led to Islamists securing around 70 percent of seats in the first Parliament.

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Former People’s Assembly speaker Saad al-Katatny has won the chairmanship of the Freedom and Justice Party, officials announced on Friday afternoon.

Katatny beat out FJP’s acting head Essam al-Erian in today’s elections.

Hussein Ibrahim, an executive member of the FJP and head of the committee supervising the election, announced that Katatny had won with 76 percent of the vote.

According to the party, 1,118 members were eligible to cast their vote in the internal elections.

Voting members of the party’s general conference include all FJP MPs, all FJP members of the secretariats in governorates and the founding members in all governorates.

The voting was set to begin this morning in the 6th of October City’s Educational City venue. The ceremony began with a recitation of the national anthem and verses from the Qu’ran as both voters and the supervising committee arrived.

However, the general conference quorum was not met during the party’s first session on Friday morning, so the committee postponed the voting for another two hours. Only 400 members were in attendance this morning, while there needed to be a quorum of 772.

Party sources claimed that if the quorum was not met in the second session, the chairman would be elected through the absolute majority system. In this case, to win the elections one of the candidates must garner two-thirds of the vote in the first round.

If neither candidate received sufficient votes, elections would be held again. Whichever candidate would receive at least fifty percent of the vote, plus one additional vote, would then be elected chairman, according to the sources.

Supporters of both candidates campaigned in the early hours of the conference. Katatny supporters held large banners, while Erian supporters distributed bouquets of flowers.

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm

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The Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party is set to vote on a new party chairman today.

According to the party, 1,118 members will cast their vote in the internal elections on Friday afternoon.

Voting members of the party’s general conference include all FJP MPs, all FJP members of the secretariats in governorates and the founding members in all governorates.

Candidates for the seat include former People’ s Assembly speaker Saad al-Katatny and FJP vice chairman and current adviser to President Mohamed Morsy, Essam al-Erian.

Katatny’s bid was endorsed by 453 members of the general conference, while Erian received only 109 endorsements.

The voting was set to begin this morning in the 6th of October City’s Educational City venue. The ceremony began with a recitation of the national anthem and verses from the Qu’ran as both voters and the supervising committee arrived.

The supervising committee is chaired by Hussein Ibrahim, an executive member of the FJP.

However, the general conference quorum was not met during the party’s first session on Friday morning, so the committee postponed the voting for another two hours. Only 400 members were in attendance, while there needs to be a quorum of 772.

Party sources claimed that if the quorum is still not met in the second session, the chairman would be elected through the absolute majority system. In this case, to win the elections one of the candidates must garner two-thirds of the vote in the first round.

If neither candidate receives sufficient votes, elections would be held again. Whichever candidate would receive at least fifty percent of the vote, plus one additional vote, would then be elected chairman, according to the sources.

Supporters of both candidates campaigned in the early hours of the conference. Katatny supporters held large banners, while Erian supporters distributed bouquets of flowers.

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm

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The Attarin prosecutor’s office in Alexandria began investigating Wednesday a report filed by lawyer Haitham Nassar Buraik accusing former People's Assembly Speaker Saad al-Katatny of squandering public funds.

Buraik said in his complaint that media outlets had quoted Katatny as saying that he has not yet returned the car allocated to him by the assembly, which was dissolved in June.

The petition also alleges that one MP has said members of the dissolved assembly were still receiving their salaries.

Egyptian media commentators have slammed Katatny for keeping the government-owned vehicle in his possession. Independent daily Al-Tahrir Editor-in-Chief Ibrahim Eissa said the car should be returned to the state since there is no legal reason for Katatny to keep it. Saeed al-Shahat, managing editor of independent daily Youm7, alleged officials have been keeping their vehicles and body guards at the expense of the state budget.

Yousry al-Sheikh, Katatny’s bureau manager, had told independent daily Al-Shorouk that Katatny would retain the car and his guard despite the assembly’s dissolution, contending that the law allows former speakers and ministers to do so.

On Saturday, the Supreme Administrative Court upheld an earlier verdict issued in June by the Supreme Constitutional Court, which dissolved the assembly after deeming parts of the law governing parliamentary elections unconstitutional.

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm

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Former People's Assembly Speaker Saad al-Katatny said his recent comments about the state of the dissolved legislature were not attempts to pressure or interfere with judicial affairs.

The privately owned daily Youm7 reported Saturday that Katatny said Parliament would be reinstated by court ruling, as the Supreme Administrative Court is considering a number of cases regarding the validity of the legislative body.

Katatny called this report, and other subsequent reports on his comments, as "inaccurate," in comments posted to his official Facebook page Saturday evening. He said that the people who stress Parliament cannot be reinstated are the same people who try to influence court rulings ahead of time.

He added that the Supreme Administrative Court has the right to decide whether the Supreme Constitutional Court's June verdict on the parliamentary election law — which decreed that the individual seats were elected in violation of the law — should be applied to the whole body or just one-third of it, which is the amount of individual seats.

The Supreme Administrative Court is considering several lawsuits against the dissolution decision, as well as President Mohamed Morsy's decision to reinstate the assembly in July.

Mohamed Fouad Gaballah, the legal adviser to the president, told Anatolia News Agency Saturday that Morsy's decision to reinstate the People's Assembly in July is still in effect. Its application, however, falls in the hands of the judiciary.

Gaballah added that if the court stated that the dissolution only applies to one-third of the seats, the People's Assembly would be reinstated with the remaining two-thirds.

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm

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The State Council's legal opinions department has not received any request to legally interpret a court verdict that dissolved the People’s Assembly earlier this month, according to a senior State Council judge.

Judge Ahmed al-Fiqqi told Al-Masry Al-Youm that his department hasn't received a request from former People’s Assembly speaker Saad al-Katatny asking for a legal opinion on the Supreme Constitutional Court’s verdict that deemed a third of the assembly seats unconstitutional.

The court had ruled that some articles of the parliamentary elections law that allowed party candidates to vie for seats allocated to independent candidates are unconstitutional because they violate the principle of equal opportunity.

The court said that, consequently, the whole formation of the People’s Assembly was unconstitutional.

Fiqqi said the ruling was made by the country’s top judicial body and therefore cannot be challenged before any other court.

He said his department cannot decide on its ability to consider the issue before receiving and reviewing an official letter. He said the ruling military council’s enforcement of the court verdict was an executive measure with no legal dimensions that can be relied upon.

But judicial sources told Al-Masry Al-Youm that Katatny preferred another way to challenge the Supreme Constitutional Court verdict, by filing a complaint against the decision by the ruling military to dissolve the People’s Assembly.

The court ruling has caused a legal dilemma because the court may only rule on whether legislation is constitutional, but does not have the authority to dissolve Parliament.

The president has the right to dissolve Parliament under the 1971 Constitution. But the Constitutional Declaration of March 2011, which has governed the interim period after Hosni Mubarak’s ouster, does not state who can dissolve Parliament.

Other former MPs, such as the Wasat Party’s Essam Sultan and lawyer Nizar Ghorab, joined Katatny in filing the complaint.  

The petitioners challenged the Supreme Constitutional Court’s jurisdiction and the constitutionality of the ruling military council’s decision to dissolve Parliament.

A circuit of the Administrative Court said that on Tuesday it would start to investigate the case that challenges the constitutional court’s verdict on the People’s Assembly.

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The Administrative Court is set on Tuesday to address challenges to a court verdict that had dissolved Egypt’s lower house of Parliament earlier this month.

Former People’s Assembly Speaker Saad al-Katatny, former Wasat Party MP Essam Sultan and lawyer Nizar Ghorab had filed the challenges. They all demand a reversal of the verdict and the right of the former MPs to enter the Parliament building.

The Supreme Constitutional Court on 14 June dissolved the People’s Assembly after ruling that some articles of the parliamentary elections law had been unconstitutional. The court said the law allowed party candidates to vie for seats allocated for independent runners, thus violating the principle of equal chances.

The petitioners challenged the court’s jurisdiction and the constitutionality of the ruling military’s ensuing decision to dissolve Parliament.

They said denying MPs entry to the People’s Assembly building was a flagrant breach of their legal rights as representatives of the Egyptian people.

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm

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Saad al-Katatny, former speaker of the dissolved Parliament, rejected the complementary constitutional declaration and the decision to dissolve Parliament, which he deemed unconstitutional, in a meeting with military Chief of Staff Sami Anan on Sunday.

"The military council should have maintained the free will of the people that produced Parliament," Katatny said, adding that he commissioned the Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee to consult with constitutional law experts on how to deal with the dissolution while still respecting the judiciary.

He also told the council that the Constituent Assembly, which was formed recently, is an independent body in accordance with Article 60 of the Constitutional Declaration, and will hold its first meeting in the coming hours to start its work.

With regard to the complementary constitutional declaration, Katatny rejected it, saying it infringes on the legislature.

"The Constitutional Declaration of 30 March 2011 did not give the military council the power to legislate in the presence of an elected parliament," he said.

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm

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Parliamentary Speaker Saad al-Katatny has confirmed that the People’s Assembly will respect the ruling of the Supreme Constitutional Court if it orders the dissolution of Parliament.

Speaking to a press conference on Saturday, Katatny said the Parliament will not interfere in the judiciary's affairs, but carefully study the upcoming verdict of the SCC.

On 14 June, two days before Egypt's presidential runoff election, the SCC will examine the legality of the electoral rules used for the parliamentary election, which was staggered from November to February,

The case was brought to SCC by an administrative court that said in February it had found legal flaws in the elaborate voting system that were unconstitutional.

The system allocated two-thirds of parliamentary seats to political parties and the rest to individuals who were supposed to be independent of any party.

These rules, however, did not stop parties such as the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party from contesting the individual seats.

The administrative court judge said political parties should not have been allowed to run for the seats reserved for individuals. He also said half rather than a third of the seats should have been apportioned to individuals.

In the same session, the court will also examine the legality of a law challenging the right of Ahmed Shafiq, Mubarak's last prime minister, to seek the presidency.

Defending lawmakers

Katatny organized the press conference in response to harsh criticisms Ahmed el-Zend, head of Egypt’s Judges Club, made against the lawmakers last week.

Zend said their comments on the verdicts in the trial of the former president constitute an interference in judiciary affairs.

On 2 June, in the first trial of a leader toppled in the Arab uprisings, Mubarak was sentences to 25 years in prison for failing to stop the killing of protesters last year. Mubarak and his sons were found innocent of corruption charges, and senior Interior Ministry officials charged with killing protesters were also acquitted.

Pro-democracy campaigners weren’t satisfied with the verdicts and have been protesting since the announcement.

Lawmakers criticized the trial's presiding judge and the public prosecutors for failing to deliver justice.

Katatny asked Hossam Gheriany, the head of the Supreme Judicial Council, to clarify the judiciary's position on Zend's comments, which Katatny called an assault on a legislature that has the genuine right to legislate. "It is the sole authority expressing the will of the Egyptian people,” Katatny said.

Katatny asserted that he respects the separation of powers and appreciates judges, saying he would not respond to what Zend said, but only point out that “All bills relating to the judicial authority were drafted by judges and advisors, former and current, and they are the same amendments demanded by Egypt’s Judges Club.”

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