Denying Rights Of Others

The opposition surely has their reasons to reject the government’s plan to refer the electoral law to the constitutional court. Sadly, these reasons are based only on skepticism as to the government’s true intentions. They are aware of the government’s right to seek the constitutional court’s help, yet are convinced that the law is flawed and that resorting to the constitutional court is the correct way to rectify it. They have a clear idea about what the ruling is going to be like, which is why they strongly reject efforts of referring the law to the constitutional court.

The opposition has used contradictions, shown by the government in the past, as an excuse to back up their stance in rejection of the referral decision. In reality, however, it is the opposition which has a history of contradictory stances. The idea of amending the electoral law was among the top priorities that oppositionists adopted in their political program.

A member of the Islamic Constitutional Movement even insisted in a statement that the amendment should be passed as early as the first session of the next parliament. On the other hand, they strangely give themselves the right to deny the Cabinet their right of amending the law or verifying its constitutionality. In the meantime, they count on maintaining a dictatorial majority in the parliament through which they can change the law in line with their personal views and form a new system with a single constituency and election by-list.

If the opposition insists on their ‘sole’ right to amend the electoral system and mold it the way they desire, then why do they deny others the same right? What’s the difference between them amending the law or the government doing so? It seems the opposition believes that the slogan ‘people are the source of power’ gives them the right to amend the law however they like. They ignore, however, the fact that the people practice their power in accordance with the constitution, not with whoever wins a majority in elections.

The opposition’s coalition has shown us over time that the constitution they continue to claim to be defending is actually the last of their priorities. They ignored it when student segregation was enforced, and when concerts and celebrations were banned. They disregard it with most women’s issues, and most recently shelved it before the 2012 parliament was annulled in order to pass the law for stricter penalties against offenders of God and religious figures. — Al-Qabas

By Abdullatif Al-Duaij

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