Amr Moussa, second left, the chairman of Egypt's panel tasked with amending Egypt's Islamist-drafted constitution, listens to Diaa Rashwan, right, political analyst and head of the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate, before they begin voting on a series of constitutional amendments, in the Shoura Council, Cairo, Egypt, yesterday.
CAIRO: An Egyptian panel approved yesterday more than half of the articles of a new constitution aimed at paving the way for a return to elected rule after July’s military ouster of president Mohammed Mursi.
If adopted in full, the charter will be put to a popular referendum early next year in the first milestone of the military-installed government’s transition roadmap, to be followed by presidential and parliamentary elections in mid-2014.
Voting on the 247 articles began yesterday with 48 members of the 50-member panel present, and is to resume today afternoon, state news agency Mena reported. It said 138 articles were approved yesterday.
After the army ousted Mursi in July, Egypt’s interim rulers suspended the 2012 constitution, which had been hastily drafted during his year in power by a panel dominated by Mursi’s Islamist allies. The roadmap stipulates that a referendum on the constitution be held by the end of the year, but officials have said it is now expected in the second half of January.
Articles approved yesterday included one stipulating that Islamic Shariah law will be the main source of legislation as was the case during the regime of toppled ruler Hosni Mubarak. The other main article approved was one forbidding the formation of religious parties or parties based on religious grounds.
This is expected to have consequences for the Freedom and Justice Party, the political arm of the banned Muslim Brotherhood, most of whose top leaders including Mursi are behind bars since July.
“A party can have a religious identity, but it has to abide by laws, the constitution and the Egyptian civil state,” panel chief Amr Mussa, who once headed the Arab League and served as Mubarak’s foreign minister, said.
AFP
