An amended draft of the 2012 constitution, compiled by a 10-member technical committee, was presented to interim President Adli Mansour on Sunday. The text, which reduces the number of articles from 236 to 198, will now be discussed by a 50-member committee comprised of representatives of all sectors of Egyptian society, as required under Article 28 of the constitutional declaration issued by Mansour on 8 July. Announcement of the draft provoked a mixed bag of reactions. Ali Awad, the head of the 10-member technical committee, believes the recommendation to cancel three controversial articles is behind most of the storm though he stresses any final decision is up to the 50-member committee. “We recommended the abolition of the Shura Council, the annulment of the 50-year-old stipulation that 50 per cent of parliamentary seats be allocated to representatives of workers and farmers and the cancellation of Article 219 of the 2012 constitution which codifies a ‘correct' interpretation of Sharia,” says Awad. “The committee also changed Article 6 to impose an outright ban on religious parties. The experience of the last year has shown that when applying for a license Islamist political parties may stress their platform does not mix religion with politics but then they systematically exploit religion to attract supporters and stigmatise their secular rivals as infidels.” Awad notes that some Islamist political parties even formed armed militias and then threatened to foment chaos if their candidates lost elections, and argues that “a general review of the performance of all political parties licensed since 2011 is in order.” The amended Article 6, now incorporated in Article 54, prohibits any political party based on religious foundations, that discriminates on the basis of gender and that “engages in activities hostile to society or that are secret or military or semi-military in nature”. The article adds that “political parties can only be dissolved by a final judicial ruling.” Al-Ahram political analyst Hassan Abu Taleb argues the elimination of political parties based on religious foundations is a prerequisite for a fully civilian and democratic state. “The Muslim Brotherhood and its political arm the Freedom and Justice Party exploited their year in office to consolidate armed militias and denigrate their political opponents on religious grounds. Morsi and other Brotherhood officials were happy to attend a rally at Cairo stadium where speaker after speaker denounced their political opponents as infidels, nonbelievers and enemies of Islam.” Abu Taleb urges Islamist political parties to adjust themselves to the new constitutional amendments. “I think it is enough for them to know that Article 2, which states that Islamic Sharia is the main source of legislation, will be maintained. They must realise they no longer have the support to tailor the constitution to their own needs, especially when that involves imposing a mediaeval reading of Islam on Egyptians.” Abu Taleb expects the 50-member committee to revoke Article 219. “We are about to see a liberal constitution, promoting civil liberties and ensuring a clear separation of powers,” he says. “The new constitution will be a bulwark against religious tyranny.” The Nour Party is unlikely to allow Article 219 to disappear without a fight. Its chairman, Younis Makhioun, says abrogating it would be “a breach of the political roadmap announced on the eve of Mohamed Morsi's removal”. The Tamarod movement, which spearheaded the 30 June protests against the regime of the Muslim Brotherhood, insists the Nour Party must refrain from seeking to impose its own positions. The technical committee has recommended changes to Article 4 so as to curtail any clerical oversight of legislation. The revised article states that “Al-Azhar is an independent and inclusive Islamic institution… entrusted with disseminating Islamic principles, religious sciences and the Arabic language in Egypt and the world”. It adds that “the grand imam of Al-Azhar, elected by the council of Al-Azhar's grand clerics… cannot be dismissed from his position”. Al-Azhar clerics had objected to clauses in the 2012 constitution which gave their institution a virtual monopoly over religious affairs, especially as related to Islamic Sharia. The Nour Party and Muslim Brotherhood, however, insisted Al-Azhar be consulted on issues relating to Islamic Sharia. While secular forces welcomed the committee's recommendation to abolish the Shura Council — “we have always criticised the Shura Council as little more than a tool in the hands of the regime,” says Abu Taleb. The committee's decision to reinstate the individual candidacy system has provoked mixed reactions. Hussein Abdel-Razek, a member of the leftist Tagammu Party, argues that “although the individual candidacy is easy for voters to understand it offers rich businessmen and stalwarts of ousted president Hosni Mubarak's defunct National Democratic Party [NDP] the chance to once again swamp parliament.” The reintroduction of the individual candidacy system, combined with the committee's decision to eliminate Article 232 stripping leading officials of the NDP of the right to contest elections, has been described by some commentators, particularly in the West, as a prelude to the return of the authoritarian tactics of the Mubarak years and as a victory for the counter-revolution. “We are aware the Western media is intent on manipulating developments to propagate the scenario that Egypt is moving towards its old police state,” said Abu Taleb. “But the Egyptian people, led by revolutionary and democratic forces, will never allow Egypt to be mired once again in political tyranny.” Abdel-Razek proposes adopting a combination of the individual candidacy and party list systems to ensure a fair representation of all political factions in parliament. “We know that the Supreme Constitutional Court has consistently ruled against a party-list system. Its judges, in collaboration with political forces on the 50-member committee, must now work out a mixed electoral system — 50 per cent for independents and 50 per cent for party-based candidates — that does not discriminate against independents while also encouraging citizens to join political parties,” argues Abdel-Razek. “The 10-member committee,” says Awad, “reinstated individual candidacy at the request of most political institutions.” The technical committee also recommends revoking Article 177 which obliges the Supreme Constitutional Court to exercise prior scrutiny of key political laws. “The committee decided that the 1971 constitution's chapter on the regulation of the performance of the Supreme Constitutional Court be reinstated in place of the 2012 constitution's stipulations,” says Awad. “The 1971 constitution guaranteed complete independence for the court. It was amended in 2012 for political reasons,” so as to allow the Muslim Brotherhood to tighten its control. In December 2012, supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood imposed a month-long siege on the High Court, preventing its judges from pronouncing on the legality of Shura Council elections. The 2012 constitution's mixed parliamentary-presidential system remains intact, as do all articles regulating the Armed Forces. Egypt's interim presidency says the composition of the 50-member committee charged with ratifying a final draft will be announced “within days”. It will include representatives of political parties, intellectuals, workers, farmers, syndicates, national councils, Al-Azhar, churches, the Armed Forces and the police. In addition the cabinet will select a number of public figures to sit on the committee which is expected to deliver a final draft of the constitution within 60 days. For its part, the Press Syndicate announced during a syndicate council meeting on Monday its objection to the draft constitution. While preparing the first draft, the 10-member committee, according to Press Syndicate Chairman Diaa Rashwan, ignored the nine articles presented by journalists. Talking to the CBC satellite channel, Rashwan said the Press Syndicate, represented by its chairman, will insist, during the 50-member committee meetings, on inserting such articles in the new constitution “out of its desire to protect freedoms”. Once the final draft is delivered to the president it must be placed before the public in a referendum within one month.
