On Tuesday, March 27, Justice Minister Mamdouh Marei announced that 75.9 percent of Egyptians who voted in the referendum were in favor of the 34 constitutional amendments that were approved by the People's Assembly (PA) after three months of deliberations. A total of 109 members from the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) group as well as Karama, Al-Wafd, and Tagammu parties voted against the amendments.Members of the opposition have also announced their withdrawal from the discussions and their discontent with the results claiming that the amendments - when passed - would severely harm Egyptian public interests and freedoms.Press reports the following day also reflected clear conflict between the government and opposition. While some headlines described voters "rushing to the polls, others expressed low participation rates. But Mohamed Khalil Kwaitah, NDP member of parliament, rejected any criticism."The acceptance of the 34 changes is a satisfying and fair result, Kwaitah said, "and I do not like the idea of boycotting the discussion, which some of the opposition members did. This is negative behavior. On the other hand, according to Mounir Fakhry Abdel-Nour, general secretary of Al-Wafd party, the 34 amendments were rushed in a total of 12 hours maximum. Five articles were especially rejected by the opposition force in the PA.The most controversial and widely criticized of the five is arguably Article 179, dubbed the anti-terrorism law. It stipulates referring those charged with terror-related crimes to military courts.Reputable rights organization Amnesty International criticized the Egyptian government, stressing that the recent controversial amendments to the constitution, specifically the planned new anti-terrorism law severely undermine human rights conditions in the country."The Egyptian authorities are committing systematic human rights abuses in the name of national security. The new constitutional amendments and proposed anti-terrorism law aim at curbing human rights and will perpetuate abuses, stressed Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, deputy director of Amnesty's Middle East Division.Egyptian opposition also argued that the changes made to Article 76 will restrict the pool from which presidential candidates will be culled.Article 76 was amended to address the presidential elections, the question of succession, political parties, the relationship between the ruling party and the opposition. The opposition sees this article as consolidating the grip of the ruling party on power at least until 2011, the date of the next presidential elections.The changes in this article have also provoked the MB, as they are by far the largest opposition force and are considered the only threat to the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP).MB deputy leader Mohamed Habib told Daily News Egypt that his group rejected the amendments because "they will turn the country into a police state soon. "This is against the concept of citizenship and equity between citizens, Habib said. "These changes will eradicate all aspects of political life in Egypt. Article 5 also seemed to rub the MB the wrong way. It was amended to ban the creation of political parties based on a religious authority. The amendment was seen as likely to impact political parties, the legislature, the relation between the ruling party and the opposition, and the powerful, but officially banned, MB. Also a few months after the amendments took place, the MB - disregarding the recent changes in the constitution - nominated 20 of its members to run for the Shoura elections in June, under its motto "Islam is the solution. Abdel Moniem Abdel Maqsoud, MB lawyer, explained to Daily News Egypt that the motto is legal and can be used. He added that its usage is in accordance with Article 2 of the constitution which indicates that Egypt is still an Islamic country. Head of the Policies Committee in the NDP Gamal Mubarak also had to defend the criticized amendments of Article 88. The amendments stipulate setting up an independent committee replacing the judicial supervision over the electoral process. The Cairo's Judges Club announced it will boycott the referendum largely in protest against this article. The judges were among the first to declare their opposition the amendments.Mubarak explained that the number of judges does not cover the number of ballot boxes and because of that elections could take months to be completed."These are some of the practical reasons, he said, "the process of holding elections must change. The amendments made to Article 127 also received wide criticism. The changes were meant to address the relationship between the executive, legislative and judicial authorities, and introduce procedural aspects to emphasize accountability for the head of the executive authority.
