CAIRO — The Egyptian Parliament voted yesterday to change the country’s constitution to allow multi-candidate presidential elections, instead of a referendum on a single presidential candidate chosen by Parliament.

Previously the president was elected in simple “yes” or “no” votes in which he was the sole candidate, a system that has been in force since 1952. Egypt’s current president, 77-year-old Hosni Mubarak, has been in office for more than 23 years.

The amendment that will allow the country to hold its first multi-candidate elections in September was endorsed by an overwhelming majority of the 454-seat lower house of Parliament. Some 34 members voted against the text of the amendment, saying it set “impossible conditions for independent candidates to run against the president.”

The new amendment stipulates that a candidate has the backing of 250 elected members of the lower and upper houses of Parliament and city councils, all of which are dominated by the National Democratic Party (NDP) headed by Mubarak.

Deputies who refused to endorse the new measure said it guaranteed that only the NDP will be able to field a candidate.

Parliament Speaker Fathi Surur said during the four-hour debate that restrictions were necessary to make sure the nominees were serious. “The door to the office of president should not be left open to any adventurer aspiring to achieve personal interests,” he said.

“What happened today in Parliament is a farce, but it was expected as 90 percent of the Parliament is composed of NDP members,” said Aboul Ezz Al-Hariri, a senior official of the left-wing Tagammua party. “Of course, they have to set the rules that will please their party, and sadly it is like choosing who is going to compete against the president.”

Several opposition parties, including Al-Wafd, Tagammua, the Nasserists, and Al-Ghad, issued statements opposing the new guidelines as they exclude all 15 Egyptian opposition parties from taking part in the race.

“We are not against amending the constitution or having contested presidential elections, but if you look at the text approved today you will find that nothing has changed,” said the leader of Al-Nasserist party, Mahmoud Mohieddin, who was a key player in the 1952 revolution and previously announced his intention to run for president. “What the government did today was just change the name of the amendment, but in the end it’s no different from the referendum system,” he told Arab News.

Steel tycoon and prominent MP Ahmad Ezz said opposition parties would commit a mistake if they refused to take part in the September elections. “We are talking here about choosing a country’s president... so there must be restrictive rules and the candidate has to have good experience in politics and has to be an active member of a recognized political party,” he stressed.

Experts disagreed with Ezz’s view, arguing independent candidates should not be barred from the race. “Being independent does not mean you do not have political exposure... we have seen so many excellent leaders who were not members of any party,” Muhammad Abdullah, chairman of the prestigious Alexandria University told Arab News. The approved amendment will be put to a referendum for final approval by the end of May, according to Parliament Speaker Surur.