People's Assembly Speaker Saad al-Katatny has been elected chairman of the assembly that will draft the country's new constitution, assembly member Mohamed Omara said Wednesday. State-run news agency MENA quoted Omara as saying that Katatny won 71 valid votes at the end of the vote count, noting that fellow member Moataz Bellah Abdel Fattah, a journalist, had decided not to vote. Before the vote was conducted, panel members and MPs Wahid Abdel Meguid and Essam Sultan withdrew their panel memberships. They said they preferred to first form a committee to discuss the assembly's activities before electing its chairman. The Islamist-dominated constituent assembly held its first meeting Wednesday morning, attended by 74 out of 100 members. State-run newspaper Al-Ahram said liberal members were absent from the meeting, while the majority of members from the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party were present. General Mamdouh Shahin, an member of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, and Emad Hussein, president of the Police Academy, as well as other public figures attended. On Saturday, a number of secular political parties and liberal figures announced a boycott of the constitutional panel, arguing that it failed to represent various social sectors. Counselors from the Supreme Constitutional Court on Wednesday apologized for not participating in the assembly. They said in a statement obtained by Al-Masry Al-Youm that the decision came after court discussions late Tuesday. The court had nominated its vice president, Awad Saleh, for the assembly, but Saleh withdrew his membership, citing suspicion about the validity of the assembly's elections procedures.
