The newly amended constitution will curtail presidential powers in order to guarantee the smooth rotation of power, reports Gamal Essam El-Din The committee, tasked on 15 February by the Higher Council of the Armed Forces with amending the constitution, is expected to finish its job tomorrow. Tarek El-Beshri, the reformist judge and appointed chairman of the committee, said on 20 February that the eight-member committee's main job was to amend articles that grant the president of the republic sweeping powers. Members of the youth movements which occupied Tahrir Square and eventually toppled president Hosni Mubarak have made it clear that his resignation was only a beginning. "We seek to dismantle the entire autocratic political system over which Hosni Mubarak presided and that means introducing a constitution that empowers parliament to hold the president and the government, accountable," says Ziad El-Oleimi, a member of the Coalition of the 25 January Revolution Youth Movement. The 1971 constitution is heavily weighted in favour of the president at the expense of the legislative and judicial authorities. The president's powers are regulated by the fifth chapter of the constitution, comprising articles 73 to 85. Articles 73, 74 and 75 delineate the main roles of the presidency while articles 76 and 77 deal with the mechanics of any transfer of power. "Articles 76 and 77 form the backbone of the constitution and the political system in Egypt," says Rifaat El-Said, chairman of the Tagammu Party. "When the constitution was first drafted in September 1971, Article 76 allowed the president to be ratified via a public referendum after he had gained the approval of two thirds of the deputies of parliament, marginalising the public while allowing the process to be dominated by MPs loyal to the regime." It was amended in 2005 to allow for multi- candidate presidential election, but in a manner that ensured only the National Democratic Party's (NDP) candidate could win. Article 77, which in the original 1971 constitution restricted the tenure of the president to two terms, was amended in 1980 under president Sadat to allow for additional terms. Mubarak took advantage of the changes to stay in power for 30 years. Hatem Bagato, the committee's rapporteur, has said that Article 77 will be amended to allow just two presidential terms, of either six or five years. "If a presidential system is maintained the term will remain six years or be reduced to five. In the event of a switch to a parliamentary system it could be reduced to four." Bagato also said that many of the conditions imposed by Article 76 on presidential candidates will be eliminated. "The article will be amended to state simply, in clear-cut terms, the conditions presidential hopefuls must meet in order to be eligible to stand," said Bagato. Changes to Article 76, forced through parliament by the NDP in 2005, were, say commentators, tailored to serve Mubarak and the presidential ambitions of his son Gamal. Informed sources suggest that Article 82 will also be amended making the appointment of a vice president mandatory ahead of any presidential election campaign. Yehia El-Gamal, a liberal and reformist lawyer who was appointed deputy prime minister, says Article 88 will be redrafted to reinstitute full judicial supervision of polls, and Article 93 changed to give the Court of Cassation the final say on any election appeals. Article 189, which determines who is empowered to amend the constitution, is also expected to be changed. In its current form it gives the president of the republic and a third of parliament's members the right to ask for one or two articles of the constitution to be amended. "The text limited any initiative to amend articles to Mubarak and his majority party," says El-Said. Article 179, which allows the president to refer civilians to military tribunals, will be revoked, says El-Beshri, thus paving the way for the abrogation of the 30-year-old emergency law, while the first four chapters of the constitution regulating the performance of the state, indicating the basic constituents of society and the liberties and rights of citizens, will be maintained. This means that Article 2, which states that Islamic Sharia is the principle source of legislation in Egypt, will remain. Liberal-oriented parties such as the Wafd and Democratic Front had asked that it be revoked, arguing that it was introduced by late president Sadat in 1980 to curry favour with Islamists and had since inflamed sectarian tension. Osama El-Ghazali Harb, chairman of the Democratic Front Party, argued that "we should return to the pre-1980 years when the constitution simply stated that Islam is the official religion of the state of Egypt." Muslim Brotherhood leaders have warned that eliminating Article 2 could open the "gate of sedition". El-Beshri has made it clear that regulating the powers of the president and parliament will also entail amending the 1956 law on the exercise of political rights, the 1972 law regulating the People's Assembly and the 1980 law regulating the Shura Council.
