IV 
109TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. CON. RES. 279 
Expressing the sense of Congress with respect to the 2005 presidential and 
parliamentary elections in Egypt. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
OCTOBER 26, 2005 
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was 
referred to the Committee on International Relations 
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 
Expressing the sense of Congress with respect to the 2005 
presidential and parliamentary elections in Egypt. 
Whereas promoting freedom and democracy is a foreign pol-
icy and national security priority of the United States; 
Whereas free, fair, and transparent elections constitute a 
foundation of any meaningful democracy; 
Whereas in his 2005 State of the Union Address, President 
George W. Bush stated that ‘‘the great and proud nation 
of Egypt, which showed the way toward peace in the Mid-
dle East, can now show the way toward democracy in the 
Middle East’’; 
Whereas in her June 20, 2005, remarks at the American 
University in Cairo, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice 
stated: ‘‘[T]he Egyptian Government must fulfill the
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promise it has made to its people—and to the entire 
world—by giving its citizens the freedom to choose. 
Egypt’s elections, including the Parliamentary elections, 
must meet objective standards that define every free elec-
tion.’’; 
Whereas on February 26, 2005, Egyptian President Mubarak 
proposed to amend the Egyptian Constitution to allow for 
Egypt’s first ever multi-candidate presidential election; 
Whereas in May 2005, President Bush stated that Egypt’s 
presidential election should proceed with international 
monitors and with rules that allow for a real campaign; 
Whereas Egypt prohibited international monitoring in the 
presidential election, calling such action an infringement 
on its national sovereignty; 
Whereas domestic monitoring of the election became a major 
point of contention between the government, the judici-
ary, and civil society organizations; 
Whereas in May 2005, the Judges Club, an unofficial union 
for judges, took the provisional decision to boycott the 
elections if their demand for a truly independent judici-
ary was not met; 
Whereas the Judges Club initially insisted that the 13,000 
judges were in no position to monitor the election if plans 
proceeded for polling at 54,000 stations on one day; 
Whereas the government responded to their demands by 
grouping polling stations to decrease their number to 
about 10,000, more or less matching the number of avail-
able judges; 
Whereas on September 2, 2005, a majority of the general as-
sembly of the Judges Club decided that the judges would 
supervise the election and report any irregularities;
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Whereas several coalitions of Egyptian civil society organiza-
tions demanded access to polling stations on election day 
and successfully secured court rulings granting them 
such access; 
Whereas the Presidential Election Council, citing its constitu-
tional authority to oversee the elections process, report-
edly ignored the court order for several days, before they 
granted some nongovernmental organizations access to 
polling stations a few hours before the polls opened; 
Whereas the presidential campaign ran from August 17 to 
September 4, 2005; 
Whereas the presidential election held on September 7, 2005, 
was largely peaceful, but reportedly marred by low turn-
out, general confusion over election procedures, alleged 
manipulation by government authorities, and other incon-
sistencies; 
Whereas the denial of full access by the Government of Egypt 
to domestic and international monitors undermines the 
legitimacy of Egypt’s presidential and parliamentary elec-
tions; 
Whereas parliamentary elections will be held in Egypt in 
three stages: on November 9, 2005, in eight provinces, 
including Cairo and its twin city of Giza, on November 
20 in nine provinces, and on December 1 in nine other 
provinces; 
Whereas it is in the national interests of the United States 
and Egypt that a truly representative, pluralist, and le-
gitimate Egyptian parliament be elected; and 
Whereas the Government of Egypt now has the opportunity 
to take necessary measures to ensure that the coming
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legislative elections are free, fair, and transparent: Now, 
therefore, be it 
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 
concurring), That Congress— 
(1) recognizes the importance of the presi-
dential election held on September 7, 2005, as a 
first step toward greater openness and political re-
forms in Egypt; 
(2) expresses concern over the lack of inter-
national election monitoring and irregularities dur-
ing the Egyptian presidential election; 
(3) recognizes that the development of a demo-
cratically-elected 
representative 
and 
empowered 
Egyptian national parliament is the fundamental re-
form needed to permit real progress towards the rule 
of law and democracy; 
(4) calls on the Government of Egypt, during 
the 2005 parliamentary elections, to— 
(A) authorize the judiciary to supervise the 
election process across the country and at all 
levels; 
(B) authorize the presence of accredited 
representatives of all competing parties and 
independent candidates at polling stations and 
during the vote-counting; and
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(C) allow local and international election 
monitors full access and accreditation; 
(5) calls on the Government of Egypt to sepa-
rate the apparatus of the National Democratic Party 
from the operations of government, to divest all gov-
ernment holdings in Egyptian media, and to end the 
government monopoly over printing and distribution 
of newspapers; and 
(6) calls on the Government of Egypt to repeal 
the 1981 emergency law and in the development of 
any future anti-terrorism legislation to allow peace-
ful, constitutional political activities, including public 
meetings and demonstrations, and allow full par-
liamentary scrutiny of any such legislation. 
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