Gamal Essam El-Din reports on the NDP's initial drafts for 34 constitutional articles proposed by President Hosni Mubarak to be amended The People's Assembly and Shura Council are approaching the end of their month-long hearings over the amendment of 34 constitutional articles called for by President Hosni Mubarak on 26 December. The Assembly's Constitutional and Legislative Committee (ACLC), which began work on the final drafts of the amendments last Sunday, organised the penultimate hearing session yesterday. Today is the final session. The Shura Council's Legislative and Constitutional Committee completed the process on Sunday. According to Safwat El-Sherif, the chairman of the Shura Council and secretary-general of the National Democratic Party (NDP), ACLC should finalise the drafts by 20 March. "After this the NDP will mobilise its two million members to vote in favour of the amendments in the public referendum that will be held in the first half of April." Initial drafts for several articles emerged during discussions in the Assembly and Shura Council's Constitutional Committees. In an ACLC session held this week Abdel-Ahad Gamaleddin, NDP parliamentary spokesman, began to unveil what many of the 34 draft articles will look like. Article 1, which currently reads "the Arab Republic of Egypt is a socialist, democratic state based on an alliance of the working forces" will be amended to "the Arab Republic of Egypt is a democratic state, based on citizenship and the Egyptian people forms an integral part of the Arab world." References to socialism will be similarly removed from articles 4, 12, 24, 33, 37, 56, 73 and 180. The NDP wants Article 59, which posits "safeguarding, consolidating and preserving socialist gains [as] a national duty" to be completely replaced. The favoured draft, revealed Gamaleddin, is: "The protection and conservation of the environment is a national duty." In addition to eliminating socialist references the NDP is also seeking to curtail, but not eliminate, the presidential prerogatives currently contained in Article 74. "The NDP disagrees with those opposition parties demanding the elimination of this article," said Gamaleddin. The NDP's proposed draft for Article 74, he said, will make it mandatory for the president to consult with the prime minister and the speakers of the People's Assembly and Shura Council in the event of any threat to national security requiring extraordinary measures, and that such measures will be placed before the public in a referendum within 60 days of their being adopted, during which period the president is not empowered to dissolve parliament. Currently, the president has no obligation to undertake consultations. The NDP's proposed draft of Article 74 is, says Sorour, based on the 1985 French constitution. "When President Sadat adopted the current article in 1977 it was formulated to give him absolute power and eliminate checks," argued Sorour. The amended article, he went on to claim, will stand as a bulwark against action aimed at undermining the republican system and any sectarian strife that might evolve into a civil war. Article 76, the focus of much controversy, will, Gamaleddin revealed, be amended to state that political parties will need only three per cent of seats in the People's Assembly and Shura Council -- ie 14 seats in the assembly and six in the council -- before they become eligible to field presidential candidates. The current text sets a five per cent threshold, or 23 seats in the assembly and nine in the council. Some press reports, however, suggest the NDP's draft amendment will exempt legal opposition parties from meeting the eligibility quote for a period of 10 years providing their candidate has held a senior position within the party for not less than five years. The NDP's redrafting of Article 76 makes no provisions for independent candidates, reinforcing the wide-scale conviction that it is intended to make it impossible for the Muslim Brotherhood to field a presidential candidate. Hamdi Hassan, the Brotherhood's parliamentary spokesman, said the NDP's refusal to allow independents to run in presidential elections underlines the true aim of Mubarak's call for constitutional amendments which is to obliterate the Brotherhood from political life. "The NDP's insistence on banning parties based on religion, stripping independents of equal rights to run in presidential elections and changing Article 88 leads to the exclusion of the Brotherhood from the political scene," said Hassan. Compounding Brotherhood dismay, Gamaleddin said the NDP would recommend Article 87 be amended to allow a slate system to be adopted in future parliamentary elections. "While the proposed text of Article 76 aims to increase the chances for legal parties to field presidential candidates, Article 87 seeks to increase their representation in parliament," said Gamaleddin. The NDP's draft for amending Article 88, which seeks to replace full judicial supervision of elections with "supervision by a higher committee characterised by impartiality and independence" represents, says Hassan, a complete shift from the Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC) 2000 ruling that "there should be a judge for every voting box". The NDP, says Gamaleddin, remains opposed to any change to Article 2, which states that Sharia is the principle source of legislation. El-Sherif argued on Sunday that Egyptian Copts support the article as it stands. "They know that the principles of Islamic Sharia enshrined by this article give them equal rights of citizenship," said El-Sherif. Mohamed Kamal, spokesman for the NDP Policy Committee chaired by Gamal Mubarak, said the NDP is against allocating a quota of seats for Copts in the assembly. "A quota system could turn Egypt into another Lebanon where parliamentary seats are allocated according to religion and sect," said Kamal.
