Egypt's new constitution aims to shift the country from an authoritarian presidential system to a French-style political system in which the president of the republic and prime minister share power. “Members”, says the 50-person constitutional committee's official spokesman Mohamed Salmawy, “rejected an American-style presidential system in favour of the French mixed parliamentary-presidential system.” Article 121 in the new constitution was amended on Sunday to state that the president — in consultation with the majority party or the coalition with the most seats in parliament — will name the prime minister. If parliament refuses the nominated prime minister it can then present its own choice of premier. The president, in consultation with the prime minister, retains the right to name four key cabinet ministers — of defence, foreign affairs, justice and the interior. Earlier versions gave the majority party or the winning coalition an automatic right to name the prime minister. Only if an overwhelming majority of the People's Assembly failed to endorse the selected prime minister within 60 days could the president name his own nominee. Salmawy argued that this article prevents the People's Assembly (or the House of Representatives) from having absolute say in the prime minister's selection. Under Article 125 policy and its implementation are the responsibility of the president and the cabinet. Under Article 127 the president no longer has exclusive power to declare war. He must first “seek prior approval from the cabinet, the Armed Forces, the national defence council, and two-thirds of parliament”. Article 129 requires the president to seek the approval within seven days of the cabinet and two-thirds of parliament within seven days of declaring a state of emergency. Article 115 has been amended to restrict the president to two terms. A president elected to a four-year term may run again for another consecutive four years, however if he loses the second term he cannot run again in any future presidential election. To qualify for the presidency candidates must be at least 40 years old and born to Egyptian parents. The candidate, his spouse, and his parents cannot hold any other nationality. Article 117, which further details presidential candidacy qualifications, was amended to make the vetting stage more rigorous. Presidential hopefuls must now receive the recommendation of 20 parliamentary members, or collect signatures from 25,000 (up from 20,000) citizens. These signatures must come from 15 (up from 10) different governorates, from which each governorate must yield at least 1,000 signatures. An article banning military and police personnel from voting in elections was also approved. The president of the republic will have the right to call a national referendum to vote on whether parliament be dissolved or not. “The president will be privileged with this right once during his term in office,” said Salmawy. The spokesman indicated that the president and one fifth of members of parliament will be allowed to request an amendment to one or more than one article of the constitution. “If submitted by the president, the request will be discussed by parliament within 30 days and if two thirds of members reject it the president will be barred from re-submitting the request in the same parliamentary session. The president will not be allowed to request the amendment of any of the constitution's articles regulating freedoms unless the request guarantees that it will grant more freedoms to the people.” Within the same context, Salmawy indicated that the president, the prosecutor-general, or a group comprising 20 per cent of MPs, will be able to direct accusations of grand treason at the prime minister. The constitution will also empower the president to appoint public figures to parliament. “They are limited to five per cent of the total number of parliamentary members, and the right should be used to help marginalised sectors like young people, women and Copts have a stronger voice in parliament,” said Salmawy. “Some blame us for not allocating quotas while others accuse us of turning the constitution into a national charter for certain sectors and not for all Egyptians. All I can say is that the constitution will serve both: all Egyptians, but with a focus on certain sectors.” Salmawy reviewed articles approved by the committee in plenary sessions over the last two days. Article 106 gives parliament — it has not yet been decided whether its name will be the House of Representatives or the People's Assembly — the right to withdraw confidence from the prime minister or cabinet ministers and their deputies. “This will be possible only upon an interpellation submitted by one of the deputies or upon a request submitted by a 10th of MPs, and if a majority (50 per cent plus one) vote in favour of the motion.” Article 138 forbids MPs from being appointed to government or vice versa. Article 140 obliges the prime minister and all members of his government to submit financial statements when they come to office and after they leave office. “All presents they receive while they are office will be relinquished to the state treasury,” the article stipulates. The electoral commission will be manned exclusively by judges. It will include 10 members to be selected from among the senior deputies of the chairman of the Court of Cassation, of the appeal courts, the deputies of the State Council and of the administrative prosecution. “These will be selected by the Higher Council for Justice and their term of office will extend for six years. There will be a mid-term renewal every three years,” said Salmawy. The 50-member committee also voted in favour of Article 179 which states that referendums and elections held in the next 10 years be subject to judicial supervision. Appeals against results of presidential and parliamentary elections and referendums will be submitted to the Supreme Administrative Court, while those relating to municipal elections will be heard by administrative courts. Articles regulating the performance of the police and Interior Ministry have been approved and a supervisory police board will be established to advise on laws related to the police. “The constitution makes it obligatory for the interior minister to seek the advice of this council and also makes it obligatory for parliament to seek the opinion of this council when laws regulating the performance of police authorities are being discussed,” said Salmawy. Although many welcomed “clipping the wings” of the president in the new constitution others expressed fears that the time is not ripe for a French-style mixed parliamentary-presidential political system. Ahmed Al-Meslemani, interim President Adli Mansour's media adviser, argued an American-style presidential system was more suited to Egypt's circumstances. “A mixed system could sow the seeds of instability given how difficult it will be for any political force in Egypt to win a majority in parliament,” says Al-Meslemani. “Coalition governments tend to select cabinet ministers on grounds of political loyalty rather than on experience and professionalism.” Al-Meslemani expressed fears that “the mixed system could usher in a period of weak governments of the type we saw between the 1923 liberal constitution and the 1952 Revolution.” Amr Al-Shobaki, chairman of the system of government sub-committee which introduced the mixed system, responds that “the liberal 1923 constitution created a complete parliamentary system while in the new constitution the president and prime minister share power. It also empowers the president to intervene to prevent the creation of weak governments.” “The new constitution puts an end to Pharaohs in Egypt but ensures at the same time that presidents do not have symbolic powers.” The 23-year-old Shura Council is eliminated by the new constitution, though rumours abound that the committee may be having second thoughts on the upper house. In the first chapter on the state and foundational principles of society the new constitution places an outright ban on the formation of political parties with a religious foundation. Article 54 was drafted to extend this ban to include any “political activities with a religious background”. Some political analysts, however, say the ban is unlikely to stem the Muslim Brotherhood and ultraconservative Salafist parties. In an article published by Al-Masry Al-Youm Hoda Abdel-Nasser, daughter of late president Gamal Abdel-Nasser, said the 50-members' constitution advocated the creation of a “capitalist and reactionary parliament”. Just as the Muslim Brotherhood stole the 25 January Revolution, argued Abdel-Nasser, so other reactionary forces are stealing the 30 June Revolution. “These reactionary forces were able to impose their say on the 50-member committee not only in dictating their Islamist agenda on a number of articles, but also in the form of eliminating rights reserved to certain sectors such as allocating 50 per cent of seats in parliament to representatives of farmers and workers.” Nader Fergani, a political analyst and a UN expert on human development, believes that radical Salafis in the form of the Nour Party were able to hijack one of the main goals of the 30 June Revolution — the separation between politics and religion. “The insistence of these radical Salafis that the word ‘civilian' be omitted from the preamble of the constitution raises doubts over their ever scrapping the dream of turning Egypt into a religious state.” The semi-final draft of the constitution shows that in spite of the fact that secularists form the majority of the committee, Islamists were able to impose their agenda on the so-called “identity articles”. Although the committee's spokesperson said several times that the new constitution would be drafted to enshrine absolute religious freedoms Article 3 was drafted to give Egyptian Muslims, Christians and Jews — rather than all non-Muslim Egyptians — the right to exercise their religious rites. Article 2 was also maintained, stating that Islam is the religion of the state, Arabic its official language and the principles of Islamic Sharia the major source of legislation. Secularists were just able to re-amend Article 4 to strip Al-Azhar's grand council of clerics from having a say on Islamic Sharia matters. Worse, argues Fergani, is that “although the draft imposed a ban on the formation of political parties with religious foundations, it abstained from defining religion-based religious parties, thus enabling Islamists to infiltrate political life again.” Fergani believes that the 50-member committee introduced a significant “arsenal” of articles granting greater freedoms and instituting social justice. In general, Fergani believes that the 50-member committee did a good job. “You cannot satisfy all sectors of society after long years of authoritarian rule, not to mention that the committee was allowed a very short time to draft a constitution that will regulate life in Egypt for years.” The constitution includes 40 new articles, concentrated in chapters regulating rights, freedoms and the foundational principles of society. There are articles which oblige the state to allocate three per cent of GDP to spending on health and four per cent on education. Others oblige the state to buy agricultural crops from farmers at set costs and ensure they receive agricultural inputs (such as fertilisers) at affordable prices. Such articles have led some to describe the new constitution as advocating a socialist or Nasserist ideology. “At a time the state is abandoning costly subsidies and moving on the road of privatisation this constitution obliges the government to allocate tremendous amounts of money on subsidised education, health and agricultural services,” complains Essam Refaat, former editor-in-chief of Al-Ahram Al-Iqtisadi. In the final hours of discussion the committee adopted a proposal to enshrine progressive taxation as a guideline for the country's tax policies. The proposal, submitted by the leftist political figure Mohamed Ghoneim, cited progressive taxation as “an important tool for achieving social justice that should be regulated by law”. Others have said the government should attempt to raise its revenues by value added tax, corporate taxes and the long delayed property tax rather than shaking up income tax which might spook investors. Proponents of progressive taxation argue that big business in Egypt pays low taxes compared to its counterparts elsewhere in the world, depriving the state of much needed revenue to spend on social services and infrastructure projects. Out of the total of 40 new articles six form a separate section on culture for the first time in Egypt's history. The six articles make the state responsible for adopting an ambitious translation programme, helping to publish cultural material at affordable prices, and promoting artistic creativity. Additional articles require that the state safeguard Egyptian antiquities against theft and ensure the protection of Egypt's heritage by preventing the sale of antiquities in international auctions. The constitution now contains an article banning all forms of discrimination. Hoda Al-Sadda, chairwoman of the subcommittee on freedoms and rights, said “an anti-discrimination commission will be established to put this principle into effect”. The constitution also imposes a ban on any “forced evacuation” of citizens. “This will help citizens such as Nubians, Copts and the inhabitants of Sinai,” said Al-Sadda. The constitution strengthens freedom of speech by imposing a ban on the custodial sentencing of journalists convicted of publication offences. It also allows complete equality between women and men. Two independent councils, says Al-Sadda, will be set up to supervise state-owned media in Egypt and ensure they are independent and geared to serve the national interests of the country. A national independent council will be established to supervise the performance of public and private media. This council, says Salmawy, will supervise through sub councils state owned press organisations and the state television and radio union. “The constitution's article regulating state media gives governments the right to eliminate the post of minister of information or keep it in place,” said Salmawy. Article 177 of the draft states that a national independent electoral commission will be set up to supervise referendums and elections, including revising voter lists, setting the rules of campaigning and funding and announcing results.
