Egypt's upper house delays voting right of police, military to 2020

Egypt's Shura Council (upper house of parliament) on Sunday agreed in principle to delay the right of police and military personnel to vote until 2020, official MENA news agency reported. Based on a request by Assistant Defense Minister for Constitutional and Legal Affairs Mamdouh Shahin, the Shura Council 's Legislative Committee approved in principle to prepare the voting database of police and military personnel in a number of distant stages. The process will be completed by the end of July 2020, which means that the police and military men cannot exercise their voting rights before then. Shahin argued that the voting database of police and military personnel would contain details about the officers' phone numbers and addresses, which is a matter of national security. For his part, Minister of Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Hatem Bagato, who attended the legislative committee discussions, also stressed the necessity of recording such details in distant stages to preserve national security. Accordingly, the Shura Council's Legislative Committee approved in principle the recommendation of Shahin and Bagato, who represent the military and the government, to start registering the details of police and military personnel in the database in line with regulations and measures that would ensure the secrecy of their details. In late May, the Supreme Constitutional Court declared the right of police and military men to vote in elections based on the new constitution approved in December 2012, a decision that drew controversy among legal experts and politicals. Egyptian police and military personnel were not allowed to vote in elections before the establishment of the new constitution, which states that "all citizens have the right to vote."