The 50-member committee charged with drafting a new constitution finished its work on Sunday at 10:15pm. On Tuesday Amr Moussa, chairman of the committee, presented interim President Adli Mansour with the final copy of the new 247-article charter. According to the constitutional declaration issued on 8 July Mansour must set a date for a national referendum within one month. Its approval will mark the end of the first stage of the post-30 June political roadmap. Hours before its work was complete on Sunday evening the committee pulled a major surprise, re-amending Article 230 in a way that leaves the timetabling of parliamentary elections hanging and opens the door for presidential elections to be held first. The changes will lend momentum to calls for presidential elections to precede any parliamentary poll, a demand that has been growing in response to a recent spike in street protests, many directed against the controversial new protest law and an equally controversial constitutional article that allows civilians to be tried in military courts. On Sunday a number of youth movements clashed with security forces in downtown Cairo. Protesters revived the “No to Military Rule” slogan that dogged the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) after it assumed power in the wake of Hosni Mubarak's ouster. Tamarod, which is sometimes credited with masterminding the toppling of Mohamed Morsi, endorsed the calls for presidential elections to be held first. Mohamed Abdel-Aziz, one of the campaign's leaders, told Al-Ahram Weekly that “the movement believes the sooner the country moves towards electing a new president the better in terms of restoring stability.” “Holding parliamentary polls without an elected president in office creates a climate favourable to the ousted Muslim Brotherhood and other allied factions, such as 6 April, to cause trouble and step up violence,” argued Abdel-Aziz. “Although I am sceptical of the ability of the Muslim Brotherhood or 6 April to mobilise serious protests against the anticipated national referendum I would still prefer presidential elections to be held first.” The Interior Ministry, supported by Prime Minister Hazem Al-Beblawi, insists the new protest law will be strictly applied. Last week it arrested three leading activists — 6 April founder Ahmed Maher, Alaa Abdel-Fattah and Ahmed Abu Doma — for calling for demonstrations against the new protest law. Abdel-Aziz is not the only one making links between the Muslim Brotherhood and the 6 April movement. It is now commonplace to find Western-funded appended to any mention of the movement in the state-owned media, and writers such as Sekina Fouad have been pushing the line that it was “no to military rule” campaigns of young revolutionary groups in 2011 and 2012 that forced the military junta to retreat from the political arena, giving the Muslim Brotherhood and Morsi a free hand. Moussa warns that now is not the moment to become bogged down in election timetabling. “First,” he says, “we must mobilise citizens to vote ‘yes' to the new constitution because it is the only path available for moving Egypt forward and helping it rise to the political and economic challenges it faces.” Constitutional experts disagree over the possibility of holding presidential elections in advance of any parliamentary poll. “The changes to Article 230 give calls for presidential elections first greater momentum,” says Salaheddin Fawzi, Mansoura University professor of constitutional law. “Some believe that holding presidential elections first will kill any Muslim Brotherhood hopes that Morsi can be reinstated. They also argue it will help towards recovering stability and reviving the economy.” But, says Fawzi, for presidential elections to be held in advance of parliamentary polls requires Article 30 of the constitutional declaration issued by Mansour on 8 July to be redrafted and explicitly state that a president be elected before parliament. “And what complicates matters further is that President Mansour will be required at the same time to gain consensus over a new electoral system before the constitution is put to a national vote.” “For these reasons, and in spite of the changes to Article 230, I think President Mansour will remain committed to implementing the post-30 June political roadmap, that is holding parliamentary elections first,” says Fawzi. Gamal Zahran, professor of political science at Suez Canal University, disagrees. “Mansour is not obliged to reach any consensus over an electoral system ahead of the referendum on the constitution. Article 102 clearly states that the individual candidacy or the party-list system, or a mixture of the two, can be applied in parliamentary polls. Mansour will only be required to select whichever option wins the consensus of political factions and not necessarily before a national vote on the new constitution is held.” “If the new constitution is accepted at referendum it means that the public has also voted yes to Mansour canvassing for consensus on the electoral system. Once a consensus is reached Mansour will then enact the new electoral system into law.” Zahran points out that “this law will probably be revised by the Supreme Constitutional Court and will have to be complemented by another law redrawing electoral boundaries.” “The road to parliamentary elections,” Zahran concludes, “is long and tricky and this lends weight to calls for presidential elections to come first.” “Aside from constitutional matters,” he adds, “we need to focus on mobilising the public to vote in favour of the new constitution. The Muslim Brotherhood and 6 April, supported by flawed coverage by American media outlets like the New York Times, have begun to tarnish the new constitution by saying it returns Egypt to military rule. They do this in spite of the fact that the 2012 constitution drafted by Islamists was the worst in Egypt's modern history, consolidating Pharaonic rule mixed with religious tyranny.” The new constitution, says Mahmoud Kibiesh, dean of Cairo University's Faculty of Law, is very balanced in terms of distribution of powers and progressive in terms of freedoms and liberties. “That the Muslim Brotherhood will denounce the constitution as the product of infidels and secularists is predictable, and so too are attempts by groups like 6 April and its ilk to repeat Western media claims that the document institutes military rule.” “There should be a nationwide counter-campaign to refute these false charges,” says Kibiesh. Articles 201 and 234, Kibiesh argues, are not that different to Article 195 in the 2012 constitution. “They say the minister of defence has to be selected from among army ranks, and that for the next two presidential terms the president of the republic is authorised to name the minister of defence but only after gaining the agreement of the SCAF. The 2012 constitution also stipulated that the minister of defence be selected from among military ranks. The only slight difference is that while Article 147 in the 2012 constitution allowed the president to appoint and dismiss public and military officials, Article 234 in the new constitution stipulates that for the next two presidential terms the president must consult the SCAF first.” “This is not a veto or the granting of immunity to the military but a necessary condition to protect the army from political manipulation.” For his part, Zahran argues that “in a volatile region like the Middle East, where most strong Arab armies have been devastated by direct American aggression as in Iraq and Libya, or by Western intervention coupled with Muslim Brotherhood aggression as in Syria, it is essential to protect the Egyptian army from political exploitation.” Kibiesh believes critics of the referral of civilians to military courts are also misguided. “Article 198 of the 2012 Islamist constitution gave the army a free hand in referring civilians to military courts. When the Brotherhood approved the article it thought it would help contain the army and keep it in check as an Islamist agenda was imposed on the country.” Article 204 in the new constitution has been drafted to limit civilians referred to military courts to those accused of directly attacking military property and personnel. (see pp.3&4)
