109TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. CON. RES. 284
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
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 Egypt is the largest Arab nation comprising over 
half the Arab world’s population;
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Whereas Congress has long supported Egypt as a partner for 
peace and stands ready to support Egypt’s emergence as 
a democracy and free market economy; 
Whereas a successful democracy in Egypt would definitely 
dispel the notion that democracy cannot succeed in the 
Arab Muslim world; 
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 
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;
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Whereas in May 2005, the Judges Club, an unofficial union 
for judges, took the provisional decision to boycott the 
election if their demand for a truly independent judiciary 
was not met; 
Whereas the Judges Club initially insisted that the 9,000 to 
10,000 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; 
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 election process, reportedly 
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;
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Whereas the presidential election was a potentially important 
step toward democratic reform in Egypt and a test of 
President Mubarak’s pledge to open the country’s author-
itarian political system; 
Whereas Mr. Mubarak promised to allow during the presi-
dential campaign a free press and independent judiciary, 
lift emergency laws that stifle political activity, reduce 
presidential powers in favor of a more freely elected par-
liament, and allow a slow but steady transition to a lib-
eral democracy; 
Whereas parliamentary elections were held in Egypt in No-
vember and December 2005; 
Whereas several local human rights and civil society organiza-
tions issued a joint statement declaring unease over the 
Egyptian Government’s criticism of independent judges, 
stating that the government was trying to deprive the or-
ganizations of the right of free expression; 
Whereas reports prepared by judges who monitored the par-
liamentary elections indicated that numerous violations 
occurred in the second and third rounds of voting, includ-
ing the physical prevention of voters from casting their 
votes, the closure of roads and streets leading to polling 
stations, and assaults on several judges as they oversaw 
the elections and protested the security agencies meas-
ures to prevent voters from reaching polling stations; 
Whereas other Egyptian nongovernmental election monitors 
also have complained that security forces blocked thou-
sands of eligible voters from entering polling stations 
during the parliamentary elections; 
Whereas poll monitors and human rights organizations re-
ported that violence initiated by Egyptian security forces,
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coupled with wide-scale arrests, contributed to poor turn-
out across the country during the parliamentary elec-
tions; 
Whereas violence during the parliamentary elections, includ-
ing reports of excessive force by Egyptian security serv-
ices, resulted in the deaths of several demonstrators and 
the wounding of dozens more; 
Whereas Ayman Nour, Mr. Mubarak’s only serious challenger 
in the presidential election, was declared in the par-
liamentary elections to have lost his seat—in a Cairo dis-
trict that elected him twice before—to a former state se-
curity official with reported ties to President Mubarak; 
Whereas it was reported that Mr. Nour, a secular liberal, was 
harassed repeatedly by Mr. Mubarak’s proxies and slan-
dered by the Egyptian media, and local election observers 
reported numerous irregularities in Mr. Nour’s Cairo dis-
trict; 
Whereas the Egyptian Government’s apparent manipulation 
of the electoral system resulted in a weakening of the sec-
ular opposition and a strengthening of the Islamist oppo-
sition in Egypt; and 
Whereas it is in the national interests of the United States 
and Egypt that Egypt be governed by a truly representa-
tive, pluralist, and legitimate national parliament: Now, 
therefore, be it
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 
concurring), That Congress—
(1) recognizes the presidential election held on 
September 7, 2005, as a potential first step toward 
greater political reforms in Egypt;
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(2) expresses grave concern over the widely re-
ported irregularities during the Egyptian presi-
dential election and parliamentary elections held in 
November and December 2005, including inter-
ference by Egyptian security forces, and the appar-
ent failure of the Government of Egypt to ensure 
that the elections were free, fair, and transparent; 
(3) calls on the Government of Egypt to take 
immediate steps to address these reported violations 
of the fundamental freedoms of the Egyptian people 
and hold those responsible for such violations ac-
countable; 
(4) recognizes that the development of a demo-
cratically-elected 
representative 
and 
empowered 
Egyptian national parliament is a fundamental re-
form needed to permit real progress toward the rule 
of law and democracy in Egypt; 
(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; 
(6) calls on the Government of Egypt to repeal 
the 1977 emergency law which took effect in 1981,
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as promised by President Mubarak, and in the devel-
opment of any future anti-terrorism legislation to 
allow peaceful, constitutional political activities, in-
cluding public meetings and demonstrations, and to 
allow full parliamentary review of any such legisla-
tion; 
(7) expresses disappointment over the failure of 
the Government of Egypt to ensure that the presi-
dential election was free, fair, and transparent; 
(8) calls on the Government of Egypt, in future 
elections, to—
(A) ensure supervision by the judiciary of 
the election process across the country and at 
all levels; 
(B) ensure the presence of accredited rep-
resentatives of all competing parties and inde-
pendent candidates at polling stations and dur-
ing the vote-counting; and 
(C) allow local and international election 
monitors full access and accreditation; 
(9) urges the President of the United States to 
take into account the progress achieved by the Gov-
ernment of Egypt in meeting the goals outlined in 
this resolution when determining—
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(A) the type and nature of United States 
diplomatic engagement with the Government of 
Egypt; and 
(B) the type and level of assistance to be 
requested for the Government of Egypt; 
(10) given the responsibility of the Government 
of Egypt for the outcome of the 2005 presidential 
and parliamentary elections, calls on the Govern-
ment of Egypt not to use the strength of the 
Islamist opposition in Egypt to justify the failure of 
the Egyptian Government to comply with its inter-
national human rights obligations or to undertake 
the reforms to which it has committed; and 
(11) urges the President and other officers of 
the Government of the United States to speak with 
unmistakable clarity in expressing the disappoint-
ment of the people and Government of the United 
States with respect to the behavior of the Govern-
ment of Egypt during the 2005 presidential and par-
liamentary elections.
Passed the House of Representatives December 19 
(legislative day, December 18), 2005. 
Attest:
Clerk.
109TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. CON. RES. 284
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 
Expressing the sense of Congress with respect to 
the 2005 presidential and parliamentary elections 
in Egypt.