Parliament’s Proposals and Complaints Committee passed a bill on Tuesday amending the law on political rights by toughening the penalty for police and army officers casting their votes in elections to five years imprisonment, as they are prohibited by law from participating in any elections.
Freedom and Justice Party MP Mohamed al-Adly, who submitted the bill, said it aims to prevent the possibility of elections fraud by writing the names of police and army personnel, in which case it becomes a felony and not just a misdemeanor.
Article 47 of the bill punishes those who deliberately write their names or those of others on the ballots, or delete them, with a term of not less than five years in prison and with dismissal from office.
Article 48 stipulates a punishment of not less than two years for those who force or threaten to prevent others from expressing their opinion in elections, those who offer benefits for others to refrain from expressing their opinion, those who request benefits for that purpose and those who publish false news about elections.
Article 49 stipulates a punishment of five years in prison and dismissal from office for those who express their opinion in elections while knowing that they are not registered in a voters' list, impersonate somebody else, vote more than once and vote for or recommend a presidential candidate on behalf of others who are banned from election.
Haitham al-Bakly, member of the Justice Ministry’s Legislation Department, called for keeping such acts as misdemeanors and not a felonies, which MPs have opposed on the grounds that this would annul the toughening of the punishment.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
