Articles and Analysies
The Elections Act by Yassir Madani
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Jun 24, 2008 - 10:50:20 AM

The Elections Act

By the time moves to realize national consensus have taken a promising shape, public opinion was amazed at differences of political forces over the draft elections act. We believe that the draft act as proposed by the National Commission for Constitutional Review has done well. But partisan considerations overshadowed its performance.

As has been announced, all the parties were agreed on the fairness and transparency of the coming elections. These two elements constitute the heart of the elections process. The dispute over distribution of the geographical constituencies and proportional representation should not have blocked consensus on the draft act since these issues can be agreed on if they were discussed in good faith.

Now that the issue has been referred to the Presidency, we hope that it will tackle it in a way that gives a boost to efforts to realize national accord.

There is no question that the elections law will pave the way for our forthcoming multi-party democracy. As a result, that democracy should be born in a climate far from partisan suspicious over that act being tailored to serve special ends.

We have no illusion as to the Presidency wisdom to reach a compromise which will be acceptable to all forces. At the same time all political forces should accept the Presidency verdict as targeting to furnish the ground for democratic elections.

It is our opinion that the differed over points have little impact on the essence of the act which stands on the core of fair and free elections.

Let all of us demonstrate keenness to begin our new democratic experience with steady steps towards national accord.