The constitutional amendments proposed on Saturday overall meet many of the current popular demands, and are mostly reasonable, said Essam al-Erian, a leading Muslim Brotherhood member. Still, he said, there are certain points with which the Brotherhood is not satisfied. For example, article 5, banning the formation of parties on the basis of religion, remains despite, he says, contradicting article 2, which states that Islam is the official religion of the state. Al-Erian added that the Brotherhood's official position on the proposals will be announced later. An army-appointed eight-member commission recommended opening Egypt's presidential elections to competition and imposing a two-term limit on future presidents. A candidate would be allowed to run by fulfilling one of three requirements: Collecting 30,000 signatures from 15 of Egypt's 29 provinces, receiving the approval of at least 30 members of the elected parliament, or representing a party with at least one member in parliament. Full judicial supervision of the electoral process was also recommended, which would address criticism that the government routinely rigged past elections. The panel proposed limiting the implementation of Emergency Law to a maximum of six months and stipulating that it depends upon the approval of an elected parliament. Extending it should require a public referendum, it said. The commission's chief, Tareq al-Bishri, said that the proposals are for a temporary Constitution, and that after the current interim period a new Constitution should be drafted.
