summary of local councils studies

7/24/2019 Summary of Local Councils Studies

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Prepared By

Ayman Okeil

Study staff

Mohamed Abo Alwafa Hagr Ali

Mohamed Shaaban Eman Sobhy


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Local People's Councils the reality ... the problem ... the solution

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About MaatThe Vision :Under the umbrella of what our country witnesses recently such as

intensifying reformation claims, dedicating the concept of the state

of institutions, the sovereignty of the law and the positive steps

that have been taken towards supporting democracy. Therefore, it

is our duty to have our own role to protect the democratic gainsand in performing positive role in pushing the reformation march

forward.

Thus, Maat center attempts to raise a generation that believe in the

positive participation in general affairs and in developing and

activating the laws related to these affairs.

Hence, Maat centers great concern is to increase legal awareness

among the youth in general and the youth lawyers in particular to

qualify them and to guide them to the right path to be able to

deliver their message in the society sufficiently and peacefully.Moreover, Maat attempts to propagate, establish and strengthen

the concept and culture of democracy and peace among the

Egyptian community, especially youth, women and The

Christians.

Therefore Maat endeavors to achieve the following objectives:

1- To propagate, enhance and strengthen the culture of peace,democracy, human rights, denouncing violence and combating

crime and corruption.

2- To activate the international charters and agreements thatsupport the everlasting and justice peace as well as human rights

and increasing the general awareness of it.

3- To enhance and encourage the democratic actions, the aware

ruling and the sovereignty of law.


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4-To increase the citizens awareness of the legal and

constitutional rights.

5- Increasing the awareness of the youth leadership in the civilcommunity institutions and training them.

6-To prepare studies and researches to contribute in developingthe legislative building.

7-To offer legal and judicial support to the oppressed classes

before the specialize bodies and holding the symposiums

,conferences ,workshops ,training courses awareness companies aswell as publishing books ,reports and shifts and preparing field

researches and studies concerning Maats activities and enhancing

coordination , cooperation and exchanging experiences among the

civil community institutions, local, regional and international

organizations.

Mechanisms:

Maat in achieving its aims depends mainly on the comingmechanisms:

1- Suing the judicial cases and offering legal help and support.2- Observing the violations of human rights and confronting them

legally.

3- Holding legal awareness campaigns to improve general

participation and human rights.

4-Holding campaigns to publish the culture of peace, denouncing

violence and the culture of others acceptance.

5-preparing legal and constitutional researches and studies.

6- Publishing legal booklets and reports.

7-Holding training courses, workshops, symposiums andconferences.

8-Establishing legal library to help the scholars in the field of

human rights.


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Summary

The local people's councils in Egypt at its various levels is the

first school which educates citizens A B of policy, as it allow

opportunities for participation, the existence of local

government is a result of the expansion in the functions and

duties of the modern state, and the expansion of the rights of

citizens.

There are many visions in the Egyptian society with regard to

the development of the whole local system and the trend

towards decentralizationand activating the role of local people's

councils in the control of the executive bodies and giving it

greater powers and broaderwhat is good for the development of

local comprehensive, as preparations are underway for a new

law on local administrationmaybe carries a lot of amendmentsto the existing structure.

The study was divided into seven main chapters as follows:

Chapter one: Basic concepts of local development: This

chapter dealt with the following concepts:

1- The concept of local administrative, the difference betweenthe local administration in the developing and developed

countries:

As the local administrations in developing countries tend to be

tools in the hands of the central departments, in developed

countries it is contradictory with each other, but it enjoy with

technical and financial capabilities and relatively high levels ofspecialist.


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2- The concept of decentralization:

Decentralization is developmental philosophy and a toolenabling people to participate in decision-makingrelated to the

development of their communities for their own benefit,

decentralization mainly mean on the transfer of powers and

authority of the highest central levels to lower local levels,

decentralization is divided into three types which are,

Geographical decentralization, Functional decentralization,

Political decentralization.

3- The concept of local development:

Local development is a group of policies and projects and

programs carried out in accordance with general directions to

make intended and desirable changein the communityto raising

the standard of living in those communitiesby improving the

income system which is a comprehensive process and as itlooks like an economic process, however in its eventual goal

social goal.

4- Local development partners:

Dealing with the issue of development must be carried out

through cooperation between different actors through planningas the planning process is inevitable for the development, there

is no doubt that the breadth of the concept of partnerships and

its multiplehas become a challenge to the various countriesin

order to bring about comprehensive and continuing

development.


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5- Good governance of the local administration:

The use of political power and exercise control over the local

community, in order to achieve economic and social

development, the elements of this governance: Participation -

Accountability - Legitimacy - Efficiency - Effectiveness -

Transparency and Response.

6- Local Leadership:

The local commander is the key element in the administrative

systemas he is one of the few who possess a full knowledge of

the system and can influence it.

7- Popular participation in local administration:

Mean the participation of citizens as individuals or groups withofficials and administrative bodies in determining the needs and

priorities for the community and the best means to achieve

these requirements.

Chapter Two: Local government - Historical Vision:

A chapter concludes that there are three forms of statewhich is

the United state, Federal State, Confederal State, the centralgovernment and local authority has variety resources which

could be in its interestalso may be used against its interest, the

most important of these resources are the legislative resources,

Political resources, financial resources, the legal constitutional

resources and information resources.


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The chapter reveals the existence of a growing desire for the

time being to broaden the base of citizen participation in

making and decision-making, and the nature of the participationof citizens depends on the quality of decisions and structural

changeswhich taken with a view to increasing the participation

of citizens in the local authorityPolitically and administratively

by creating accessible small units, it can also play a positive

role in the revitalization of the local concerns and interests.

The local governance is an effective means of developmentlikethe public agencies, also. The types of services provided by

local authorities are various and differs from one country to

another, and the primary objective for which the local

governments have been established in its various forms and

patterns since the Middle Ages is to provide services for

citizens, the comfort of the housing, public education , the

establishment of sewage systems , drinking water supply,construction of roads etc, the provision of such services and

other absorbs most of the funds received to local government

coffers in the form of taxes and grants, it is clear that some of

the services the local Government is committed by law to

provide it such as services of children education in most

countries of the world.

Chapter three: Models of local government in the world:

First: The local system in France:

Local administration System in France consists of three levels:

Municipalities, provinces, regions and the number of

municipalities in France are 37,000 municipality, to about 65

million people, and all the municipalities are homogeneous interms of competencies and levels, with the exception of Paris,


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Lyon and Marseille The French local units including

municipalities characterized by independent moral personality

of the powers of the central state, in addition to it being run bythe elected members, there is no reason to appointing of some

of them.

Second: The local system in the United Arab Emirates:

National Constitution define the division of power between the

Federal Government and the Governments of each emirate,

there is no higher authority or a Ministry supervise the

Municipal Affairsboth at the confederal level or at the level of

one emirate as a result of each emirate is considered as a

separate unit internally, municipalities are responsible for

achieving the objectives of the confederal GovernmentEmirates

has taken a one level local system, There are 8 municipalities in

the State, a municipality in each emirate.

The local authority at the level of the emirate composed of

municipal council and to propose regulations, decisions and

orders. The second authority is the executive authority

represented in the executive branch and the composition of

these two branches of the municipal councils the strength of

local government vary depending on the size of the emirate and

its population number.

Third: The local system in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia:

Kingdom is divided into 13 regions: each region has a

Governor. The King appoints those governors who are

responsible directly to him.Most of the governors are from Al-

Saud family, areas divided into municipalitiesas the number ofmunicipalities in the Kingdom 178 municipality.


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The Kingdom like most of nations of the world has intended to

develop systems and especially the system of governance and

administration, this development represented in the adoption ofthe three important systems which are : Basic System of

Government, and the Shura Council system, and regions

system, which considered the most recent attempts to develop

the local administration in Saudi Arabia, it includes two main

axis, the first is to identify them in the local management

structures, the second expansion of participation in decision-

making at the regional level through the establishment ofregions councils.

Fourth: The local system in Yemen:

The system of local authority in accordance with the provisions

of the Constitution and the law depends on the principle of

administrative and financial decentralizationand on the basis of

the expansion of popular participation in decision-making and

management of local affairs in the areas of economic, social

and culturaldevelopment through elected local councilsand the

powers of these councils to propose programs , plans ,

investment budgets for administrative unitsand the exercise of

its role in the process of implementing the plans and

development programs, as well as the people's control and

supervision of the executive organs of the local authority and

accountability and liability.

Republic of Yemen divided into (21) governorate, the

governorates are divided into (333) Directorate, which divided

into (2200) district, and (36986) village and (91489)alley, the

number of local departments (5620) local Service (polling

stations).


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And administrative units have enjoyed with legal personality

and has elected local councils have been freely, equally and

directly elections at the level of the governorate and theDirectorate and exercise its functions and powers within the

administrative unit, it makes proposal of the programs, plans

and investment budgets of the administrative unit, the territory

of the Republic of Yemen divided to an administrative units in

accordance with the administrative division of the Republic,the

law issued in its trend its divisions and numbers and borders.

Fifth:local system in the United States:

United States is a federal state, characterized by a radical

decentralized management pattern in its decentralization even

the government units or local administration namely the states :

is a political and administrative entitiesenjoy a large measure of

autonomy in the conduct of local affairs, there are three levels

of local government which are states , districts and

municipalities, in sometimes addition to these levels there is a

particular level is governorates located between the state and

the district, in addition to the municipalities what is known as

Special Areas, which are units of local government on a certain

issues.

There are 87,000 local governments, include 3,034 governorate,19,498 district, and 30,000 Municipal, in addition to 35,000

special areadealing with specific issues such as protection from

fire.And its activity at the level of federal government or state

level, the local governments directly meet the immediate needs

of the people, and provide all the services of police, fire

protection, Education, public transport and housing.


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Chapter Four: Local people's councils in Egypt

(Administrative status ... The legislative framework)

The basic regulations of the local administration in Egypt

represented in Local administration units , Economic regions,

the Secretariat of the local administration, and the Supreme

Council for the local administration, the Act defines the units of

local government with governorates, districts, cities and

neighborhoods and villagesand each have its legal personality.

The historical development of legislations governing

municipalities:

Egypt is one of the oldest nations which knew the local

administration, the first knowledge of the local administration

when Napoleon Bonaparte divided the country into 16

Directorate after that Mohammed Ali Divided it into 14

Directorate and every Directorate divided into several centers.

And part three of the Constitutionregulating the work of local

administrationwhere the articles (161), (162), (163) stated that

division of the Arab Republic of Egypt intoadministrative units

have legal personality, Article (76) as modified of the

inevitability of consent of a certain number of members of local

people councils on the Independent candidate for thepresidency, as the Article stated that"President of the Republic

shall be elected by direct secret ballot". The nomination for the

presidency, the representative should be supported by two

hundred and fifty members at least of the elected members of

the People's Assembly, Shura council and Local people's

council in the governorates".


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And regulating the work of local people's councils and sets out

its terms of reference, composition and organize its electionsby

the Act No. 43 of 1979 as amended by Act 49 of 1981 asamended by Act 145 of 1988 as amended by Act 9 of 1989 as

amended by Act 84 of 1996.

Local people's councils in governorates:

Article (10) of the Local Administration Act 43 of 1979 stated

that in each governorate a local people Council formed from ten

members from each center or administrative division, the law

specifies the terms of reference for local councils in the

governorates in Article (12), where the local popular council in

the governorate within the limits of the general policy of the

State , responsible for control over the various facilities and

business within the jurisdiction of the governorate and may

request through the governorate any data on the activity of other

productive and economic units and other working in the

governorate, and also overseeing the implementation of plans

for local developmentas laid down by law and the Regulations.

Local people's council of the centers:


that each center, a local people council is formed in it the citycapital of the Center represented in by twelve members, the city

which includes more than one administrative department

represented by fourteen members, and Article (41) determined

powers of the local People's Council of the Center where the

local people's council of the Center within the scope of the

general policy of the governorateto take care of the supervision

and control of the local councils of cities and villages locatedwithin the Center and ratification of its decisions within the


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limits determined by the Regulations, and control of the various

facilities of a domestic nature which serving more than one

local unit in the Center.

Local people's council of cities:


that "a popular local Council is formed in each city, each

administrative section represented by fourteen members, and

the city with one region is represented by twenty four

members", Article (49) stated on the powers of the local

People's Council of the citywhere it takes control and supervise

the District Councilsand coordination between each otherand

control the various facilities at the local levelof the city.

Local people's councils of the districts:

Article (59) of the Local Administration Act 43 of 1979 statedthat" in each district a popular local Council is formed where

each administrative section represents by twelve members, the

local People's Council of the district includes one administrative

section represented by eighteen members", Article (61) stated

that" local people's council of the district within the scope of the

general policy of the city responsible for the control and

supervision on the various facilities at the local level in thedistrict-wide.

Local people's councils of the villages:


that" every village represented a local unit formed a local

people council of twenty-four member" Article (68) stated that"

the local People's council of the village in the scope of public


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policy for the Center responsible for control and supervise the

various facilities of a local nature and responsible within the

limits of laws and regulations of the proposal to the villagedevelopment plan economically, socially, and proposal of

budget draft, and adoption of the final Balance sheet draft,

propose means of popular participation and the self potential

scope of the villageto raise its level, work to raise agricultural

awareness in order to improve and diversify agricultural

production, and propose the establishment of various public

utilities of the village, and work on literacy, family planning ,youth care and the deepening of the religious and moral

values".

Chapter five: local people's council elections, "Reading of

the councils of 2008":

The beginnings of the election system of in the local people's

council were in 1909. The localities have been recognized for

its moral personality it was composed of Major Shareholders

(the elected) and senior staffing (the appointed) also the

foreigners were part of appointed and elected local councils.

Act No. 50 of 1981 introduced an election system by party lists

in the formation of the People's Councilsand added some terms

of Powers for some of the members of the People's Councilsand gave it some powers which had been withdrawn from it,

and Act No. 168 of 1981which combined between the election

with the party-list and individual election and abolished the

mandatory representation of women in the formation of local

people's councils.

It was assumed that the end of the session of elected localpeople's councils in (2002) in April of the year (2006),


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However, the Egyptian parliament has approved in the

(February 14, 2006)by the majority of (348) votescompared to

(106) votes on a proposal by President Hosni Mubarak toextend the work of local councils for two year, so the

government justified postponing the elections in order to give

time to amend the law governing the management of localities

to have broader powers to the detriment of the centralization

which executive bodies suffered from, by developing an

alternative electoral system for the individual system which is

difficult to elect this huge number of candidates which reach(53) thousand members, and to apply President Mubarak

electoral program which requires some time, which did not

happen, the government justified the delay because of the

amendments to the law of local administration, but all this did

not happenand the elections was done under the old law.

The election came after the adjustment of package ofConstitution's articles, the president's speech Confirmed to the

parliament that the purpose of the amendments is to support

local authoritiesandthe trend of administrative decentralization

and grant the authorities for it to enable it to perform its role.

The local administration law and its amendments allows broad

powers to the Minister of the Interior and the Governorsin the

organization of the stage of opening the door for nominations

and the development of the rules governing itand requested the

necessary documents to prove the validity of nomination

papers.

This election has characterized with the weakness of the

representation of the forces and opposition political parties, no

one has been able to complete the required number for each


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constituency,all parties except the national party were unable to

provide candidates covers constituencies or even (1%).

Before the start of the election battle, the National Democratic

Party had resolved (70%) of the seats by recommendation, after

the election, the proportion rose to more than (95%) while

opposition parties won only a very limited number of seatsand

the rest were for independent, some human rights organizations

that monitored the elections noted number of observations

during the electoral process, the most significant was theabsence of full and independent judicial supervision of

elections, and the reluctance of citizens to participate in the

electoral process, The real abuses in the electoral process

represented in the violations occurred during the registration

and the go for the candidature as some of them were prevented

from nominating.

Chapter six: Civil society and participation in local

governance:

Civil society organizations is a free group of volunteer

organizations which fill the public sphere between the family

and the State, which in between the kinship organizations and

institutions of the State in which no choice in its membership",

these free volunteer organizations established to achieve theinterests of its membersor to provide services to citizensor to

exercise a variety of humanitarian activities, is committed in its

presence and activity of the values and norms of respect ,

mutual accommodation and tolerance, participation and the

peaceful management of diversity and difference.

There are two ideas to help highlight the issues associated withthe involvement of civil society in local governance are:


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Coverage and empowerment of civil society, and coverage

includes both the two political processes: participatory

democracy and objectives, and empowerment means to passnew capabilities, and the establishment of new institutionsand

the promotion of new ways of working within the scope of

existing organizations.

Most of the literatures agree that the participation of civil

societycontribute to better identification of needs and demands

and to increase efficiency in the implementation, in addition topromoting sustainability and social harmony.

The main result of the failure to involve civil society in local

governanceis the proliferation of slums and non-equal quality.

And these factors often operate as retardants for investment and

competitive.

Building a partnership of civil society in local governanceraises a number of challenges, most importantly, identifying the

parties of the legitimate dialogueamong the population group ,

to identify participatory channels, block the full participation of

women, the lack of appropriate legislation governing the civil

organizations, especially in the Arab region, and the corruption

of local organs, which may lead to the deliberate of removal of

stakeholders on the context of local decision-making.

Citizen's Voice Project: a model of partnership between

civil society and local authorities:

Citizen's Voice Project is a developmental project implemented

by "Maat" in collaboration with the Foundation for the Future;

this project represents a living embodiment of what should bethe role of civil society in local development the relationship


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must be established between civil society organizations on the

one handand local councils on the other handand citizens at the

local level in third hand.

The works in citizen's voice project is based on a set of human

rights mechanisms and effective development, and rarely use

and employ in one developmental activity, these mechanisms

are, Community mobilization, Networking and partnership,

Training, Enlightening seminars, Hearing sessions, Institutional

support, Studies and Research.

Chapter seven: the problems of local people's councils in

Egypt and the vision of the solution:

First: the problems of the local system in Egypt

1 - The management problems: the most important are: the

tendency to centralization, Overlaps in the functional structure,inherited administrative boundaries, and the reduction of the

effectiveness of local administrations.

2- Residential problems.

3- Continuous adjustments and changes in local systems.

4 - Low level of financial empowerment of the local units.

5 - Double subordination which directorates' services issubjected to.

6- Lack of powers of the Governoron the departments that were

not move into competence of the governorate.

7- Constraints related to the local executive leadership are:

A)Dependence on the traditional management style.

B)

The lack of perception of human resources.


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C)

The leaders adopt the management by the power.

D)The absence of a vision and strategic objectives.

E)

The tendency to resist change.

F)

Duplication of local development policies(the case of "

shorouk " program for rural development)

Second: the problems of local people's councils

1- Marginalization of local people's councils.

2-

The weakness of the regulatory tools.

3- Inadequate method of representation in local people's

councils.

4- Poor participation in local elections.

5-

Poor representation of women.

6-

The absence of independency and the multiple levels ofsupervision.

7- Poor representation of political parties.

8-

Low cultural level of the members of the local people's

councils.

9-

Weakness of the financial resources of the local popular

councils and members.

Third: a vision to solve the problems of local people's

councils:

1-

Some reforms in the legislative structure:

Various legislative changes should be in line with the trend

towards decentralizationwhich requires a statements provision


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to enable local people's councils to participate in the planning

and implementation of local development programs, and to give

greater powers to the members of the local people's councilsand the reform of the electoral system and modify the terms of

the nomination, one of the most significant proposed

amendments to the Local Administration Act 43 of 1979in this

regard the following:

- Amendment of Article (3) of the Act to delete the segment

which says that it should bea half of the members at least of theworkers and peasants.


which says that it should be one of the agents of the local

People's council of the workers and peasants.

- Amendment if some of the paragraphs of Article (12) of the

Act to increase the powers of the local People's council in thetaxation of a domestic natureand plans for the maintenance of

order and local security.


which say that it should bethe governor may be put someone to

respond to questions posed to him like the heads of departments

and public bodies, and compel the governor to respond inperson.

- Add an article to the law states thatthe granting of the right to

provide interrogation for members of local councils of the

governorates.

- Amendment of Article (40) on the election of the Chairmanand the local agent of the People's council of the Center by


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cancelling the segment saying that the President or the agent

must be of the workers and peasants.

- Amendment of Article (48) on the election of the Chairman

and the local agent of the People's council of the city by




and the local agent of the People's council of the neighborhood

by cancelling the segment saying that the President or the agent



and the local agent of the People's council of the village by



- Amendment of segment (4) of the article (76) the need of the

candidate to gain a qualified educational level.

- Amendment of Article (78) onthe formation of committees to

receive nominations applicationsof the membership of the local

people's councils and the preparation of candidates lists to be

the resolution of the formation of the committee issued by theElection Commissionwhich provides its establishment the Law

of the exercise of political rights.

- Amendment of Article (90) to allow members to charge

remunerative allowances for burden they are incurred.


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- Amendment of Article (145) on the dissolution of the local

people's council of the governorateor other local administration

unitsto state on the approval of the People on the decision.

2-To do some reforms in the electoral process :

The most important is to facilitate procedures the extraction of

election card, and to reform the procedures of the electoral

process to become more fair and transparent, the expansion of

judicial supervision on it and update the database tables to

ensure purification and updated of the electoral lists.

3-Some reforms to strengthen the participation of women:

The most important recommendations in this regard the

adoption of electoral systems that support the participation of

womenin order to ensure increased representation of women in

the electoral boards, proportional voting lists proved itssuccessful in that, and the adoption of media speech aimed at

changing the stereotypes of the role of women as a house wife

and focus on its roles as a partner in management and

governance, and the allocation of seats for women in local

people's councilsas in the recent legislative councils.

4-

Some reforms to strengthen the participation of parties inlocalities:

The most importantly the introduction of proportional voting

lists in local elections to ensure greater representation of

political parties, and allow freedom of movement and the

organization of events and activities for parties in local units

with its different levels

and not to put administrative andsecurity restrictions on it.


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5-Activate the participation of civil society in local

governance:

One of the most important recommendations here are to change

the legislations governing civil society to come in line with the

expected role of these organizations in light of the trend

towards decentralization and the empowerment of local units,

and to pay adequate attention from governmental and non-

governmental organizations on the spread of the culture of

decentralization and good local governance among citizens atthe local level, Finally, spread the culture of participation and

the definition of their importance in building the local

communitycharacterized by a high rate of development.

6-Work to increase the capacity of local people's councils:

This by holding training courses for members of elected local

councils and the repetition of these courses in order tounderstand the duties and rights and the limits within the local

law, holding special and advanced training courses to the heads

of local people's councilsat all levels, because of the significant

impact of the heads of the boards to the rest of the membership

on the one handand their pivotal role in activating the powers

of the council, on the other hand.

summary of local councils studies

Documents