He was talking to media after signing after signing a MoU with the Chief Election Commissioner of India, VS Sampath for an institutional framework for cooperation in election management and administration.
The drafting of the new Egyptian Constitution would be completed by the end of the year.
The major aims of MoU are for promotion of exchanges of knowledge and experience in the field of organizational and technical development, with a view to strengthening the administration of electoral processes; exchange of information, material, expertise and technical knowhow relating to electoral processes and systems; training of personnel and development of human resources, and organizational development and capacity building.
“We are studying the Constitutions of different countries across the world. We are very much impressed by the management of electoral process in India,” he said.
Defending the proposed provision of Shari’ah law in the new Constitution, he said : “as Egypt is a Muslim majority country Shari’ah law is necessary for operation succession rights and property matters. The Constitutions drafted in 1966, 1971 and 1982 had provisions for Shari’ah law and this had not caused any problems for communal harmony.”
The 1971 Constitution had taken some provisions of the French Constitution. The 1982 Constitution had incorporated more stricter provisions of the Shari’ah law.
“With a view to give rights to women and children in the new Constitution we are incorporating some provisions found in South African Constitution,” he said.
Justice Bagato is also the Vice-President of the Supreme Constitutional Court and the President of the College of Commissioners of the Supreme Constitutional Court. Before taking up his current responsibilities, he was also the Rapporteur of the Constitutional Amendments Commission.
The Chief Election Commissioner of India VS Sampath expressed the confidence that the MoU would facilitate sharing of best practices, skills and experiences between the two institutions for mutual benefit. He described the MoU as an extremely suitable mechanism for strengthening and carrying forward mutual collaboration in electoral management and administration.
He commended the Egyptian Committee for the competence with which the recent Presidential election in Egypt was conducted in the most challenging circumstances. He also offered the Egyptian side to send nominations of its election officials to participate in a special international training course for mid-career election officials which the ECI will organize from October 8-20, 2012 under the ITEC programme of the Government of India.
Election Commissioner HS Brahma, in his welcome address, commended the recent rapid strides in election management and administration made by Egypt and expressed confidence that the MoU would pave the way for effective cooperation between the two institutions and will benefit other countries as well. Election Commissioner Dr. S.N.A. Zaidi, diplomats and senior officials of the Election Commission of India and the Indian Government India were present at the signing ceremony.
Election Commission of India has so far signed thirteen MOUs with Election Management Bodies and international organizations across the world. India and Egypt are already collaborating in the areas of Electronic Voting, Voters Education and Election Tracking Technology. At the request of the Egyptian delegation, they were also given a detailed briefing and demonstration in the ECI, on the working of the Electronic Voting Machine.