While the elections authority’s responses continue regarding locality lists
Lawyers’ fees amount to 5 million cents, and leaders handle the litigation
Several party formations took over the appeals files of their candidates whose candidacy files for the upcoming local elections were rejected, with the aim of returning them to the lists and preserving their party loyalty, their votes, and the votes of their family and social circles, even if their appeals were not accepted. The intervention of some parties extended to sponsoring lawyers’ fees, which amounted to 5 million centimes or sometimes more, while the heads of political formations took over the personal pleading on behalf of disqualified candidates.
According to what “Al-Shorouk” learned, the parties concerned not only followed up on the decisions to reject nomination files, but also accompanied a number of their candidates in the subsequent legal procedures, and monitored the developments of the appeals filed against them, at a time when some of those disqualified chose to continue the judicial path in the hope of obtaining rulings that would allow them to regain their right to run, while others did not decide to go far in the appeal procedures.
These moves come in light of the continuation of the appeals process related to the municipal and state popular council elections scheduled for next November 28, after the Independent National Election Authority began to communicate decisions rejecting some candidates’ files, and the ensuing partisan and legal movements to try to change these decisions and remedy their effects on the electoral lists.
In the same context, some political formations not only followed up on the files of those concerned before the competent judicial authorities, but also extended to paying lawyers’ fees that amounted to 5 million cents or more in some cases, while being careful to follow up on the course of appeals and the procedures associated with them, instead of leaving the candidates to face the burdens and costs of litigation alone.
Through this follow-up, the parties aim to retrieve their candidates, especially since rejecting the nomination file may deprive them of benefiting from the participation of names they have chosen to represent them in the local elections, in addition to the possibility that their electoral balance will be affected by their exit from the competition, given the support they may receive within their family and social environment.
In this context, following up on appeals is not limited to trying to re-include rejected names on the lists, but it also allows parties to continue communicating with the candidates in question, and to demonstrate their adherence to them despite the rejection of their files, in a way that maintains their relationship with the political formation and avoids losing their support and the votes of the environment that they were able to attract during the elections.
The intervention of some political formations did not stop at following up on the files and covering the expenses of lawyers, but rather extended to the direct involvement of party leaders in the process of defending their candidates. In this context, the head of the People’s Voice Party, Lamin Osmani, for example, took over the plea in favor of candidates on his party’s list in the capital, after the files of approximately 13 candidates were rejected, according to “Al-Shorouk” sources.
On the other hand, the procedures related to appeals and adjudication of the files in question continue, at a time when the parties are trying to deal with the repercussions of the initial rejection, between continuing to defend the candidates who decided to resort to the judiciary, and searching for ways to maintain the connection of those excluded to it, in a way that ensures that losing the candidacy does not turn into a political and electoral loss that extends beyond the owners of the files concerned.
