EGYPT: Parliamentary Polls to Precede New Constitution

• by Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani (cairo)
• Wednesday, July 20, 2011
• Inter Press Service

'The council remains committed to an interim plan to hold parliamentary elections first, after which a new constitution will be drafted,' a spokesman for Egypt's Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) declared in an official statement on Jul. 12. 'Presidential elections will be held some time after that.'

Since the February ouster of longstanding president Hosni Mubarak, the debate over whether parliamentary polls should precede the formulation of a new constitution - or vice versa - has polarised the public.

Generally speaking, those of an Islamist orientation - confident in their ability to capture a majority of parliament - want elections first. Egyptians of liberal or secular leanings - fearing a national charter drawn up largely by Islamists - want a new constitution to be drafted in advance of parliamentary polls.

'Islamist groups are poised to win a majority of seats in parliament in upcoming elections,' Ahmed Sameh, a member of the liberal-oriented Patriotic Front for Peaceful Change, told IPS. 'If they do, they will appoint the committee responsible for drafting a new constitution.'

In an effort to reach a compromise, however, the ruling SCAF also announced that a working group would be drawn up to formulate specific rules governing how members of any future constitutional committee would be chosen. The working group, which is to include representatives from all political trends, is expected to be formed within the coming two weeks.

'The working group will lay down specific rules to ensure that the constitutional committee will include representatives of all social segments,' Amr Hashem Rabie, expert in political affairs at the Cairo-based Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, told IPS. 'This, in turn, will guarantee that any future constitution will meet the needs of all Egyptians and not just those of a particular orientation.'

While it remains uncertain exactly what these rules will be, they are expected to include quotas for certain minority groups. 'They will probably set quotas within the constitutional committee for Coptic Christians, farmers, labourers and others,' said Rabie.

The Democratic Alliance for Egypt, which consists of 28 political parties - including the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist groups - welcomed the ruling council's announcement.

'The constitutional committee must represent all political, social and religious trends in order to forge a new national charter acceptable to all Egyptians,' the alliance declared in a press statement on Jul. 13. 'We consider this announcement an important step towards solving the longstanding debate between those who want a constitution first and those who want elections first.'

The dispute first came to the fore in March, when 77 percent of Egyptian voters approved a package of constitutional amendments in a popular referendum - Egypt's first national poll since Mubarak's removal. Along with liberalising the electoral process, the raft of changes also mandated the incoming parliament with forming a 100-member committee to draw up a new national charter.

'The referendum results reflected the will of the people, most of whom want elections before anything else,' Sobhi Salleh, leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood (and member of the panel of experts that drew up the recent amendments), told IPS. 'Those demanding a constitution first refuse to respect the results of the ballot box.

'They speak with loud voices, but have no power on the street,' he added. 'This was shown by the results of the referendum.'

So-called 'constitution-firsters,' however, challenge this assertion.

'We're not rejecting the results of the referendum,' Hafez Abu Saeda, head of the Cairo-based Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights and vocal ‘constitution-firster’, told IPS. 'The ruling council itself failed to implement the results to a letter when it issued a temporary, 62-article charter instead of merely amending ten articles.'

'Besides, it's only logical that the forging of a new constitution precede elections so as to determine the exact relationship between the different branches of government,' Abu Saeda added, echoing a commonly held view.

Sameh accused those demanding elections first - by which he meant Islamists - of 'trying to score narrow political gains at the expense of Egypt's future political system.

'They want to shape Egypt's new political landscape according to their own narrow vision,' he said. 'Except for the Islamists, and especially the Muslim Brotherhood, virtually all of Egypt's political trends are in favour of drafting a new constitution first.'

The debate reached boiling point on May 27, when hundreds of thousands of protesters massed in Cairo's Tahrir Square to reiterate demands for a constitution to be drafted in advance of parliamentary polls. On the same day, a coalition of liberal and leftist parties and movements launched a 'constitution first' campaign aimed at collecting 20 million signatures in support of their position.

Essam al-Arian, vice-president of the newly established Freedom and Justice Party (which is closely associated with the Muslim Brotherhood), described such moves as 'dictatorial'.

'No amount of signatures or demonstrations should be allowed to change the results of the referendum,' al-Arian told IPS. 'If elections are postponed until after a new constitution is drafted, this would create a very dangerous precedent for the future of democracy in Egypt.'

The latest announcement by the ruling SCAF, however, appears to have resolved the ongoing dispute between ‘constitution-firsters’ and ‘election-firsters’ - at least for the time being.

'We won't know for sure whether the controversy has been finally settled - or whether it will simply reignite later - until the new rules are issued in the next couple of weeks,' said Rabie.

© Inter Press Service (2011) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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