Opposition and legal experts voiced skepticism over the effectiveness of the commission assigned by President Hosni Mubarak on Tuesday to introduce constitutional amendments. “The matter does not need a commission,” said Ibrahim Nawar, official spokesman of the Democratic Front Party. “The regime wants to waste time and to distract us with commissions and dialogues until Mubarak's term in office ends.” Earlier today, the president issued a decree entrusting an advisory committee consisting of eleven legal experts with proposing amendments to three articles of the Constitution. The panel is expected to relax limitations of eligibility conditions for presidential candidates, set a curb on the number of terms a president can serve and reinstate full judicial monitoring of the elections. The panel is headed by Judge Serri Mahmoud Siam, a staunch supporter of Mubarak's rule. He had contributed to drafting constitutional amendments in 2007 when Mubarak's regime introduced changes to 34 articles, many of which were dismissed by opposition and rights groups as undemocratic. The amendments infringed on human rights protections and prohibited peaceful political activity, particularly by the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest opposition movement, and proved an obstacle to providing full judicial monitoring of elections. Yet, some of the panelists--including Ahmed Kamal Abouel Magd, a human rights legal advocate, Ahmed Mekki, a reformist judge, and Yehia El-Gamal and Ibrahim Darwish, vocal opponents of Mubarak's rule--were hailed by the public as fair and liberal jurists. Limiting the panel's membership to legal experts and excluding politicians was a major mistake, according to Mohamed Nour Farahat, professor of philosophy of law at Zagazig University. “This is not a political commission; it is a commission of technocrats,” said Farahat. “We wish different political currents could have been represented in the commission because the Constitution is not just law. It's a manifestation of a political vision for the future.” In the meantime, Farahat held that the panel should have been directed to look into amending additional articles of the Constitution. “This is not enough; there are other articles that need to be amended,” added Farahat, referring to articles 93 and 179. Article 93 stipulates that the “People's Assembly shall be the only authority to judge the validity its memberships.” This provision has been used by Mubarak's regime to evade hundreds of court verdicts that challenge the legitimacy of NDP candidates. Article 179 grants the executive branch wide authority to address terror threats in a way that threatens basic human rights. Hussein Abdel Razek, a leading figure in the left-wing Tagammu party, adds more articles to the list of provisions that require urgent reforms. “The problem with the Egyptian Constitution is that it does not strike a balance between the three branches of government. The executive maintains the upper hand,” said Abdel Razeq. Abdel Razeq went on to dismiss as “nominal” constitutional reforms amendments that fail to instate a system of checks and balances. The legal panel comes on the heels of two weeks of mass protests that swept the country where hundreds of thousands of Egyptians took to the streets nationwide to demand that Mubarak step down. In downtown Cairo, Tahrir Square became the rallying point of protesters who continue flooding in from different provinces, shouting, “Mubarak! Depart!” After the eruption of the first wave of protests, Mubarak sacked the cabinet, appointed Intelligence Chief Omar Suleiman as vice president, announced that he would not run for a sixth term in September and promised to amend the constitution. As to the ruling National Democratic Party, Mubarak reshuffled it, dismissing longtime proteges as well as his son who had emerged as the likely to successor his 82-year-old father. Yet, none of these developments reached the level of genuine concessions in the eyes of protesters. “The revolution wants to oust the regime and the president as soon as possible. Meantime, the president is trying to remain in office until the end of his term,” said Nawwar.
