Extensive amendments of the constitution adopted under Egypt’s ousted Islamist president give the military more privileges, enshrining its place as the nation’s most powerful institution and the source of real power, while removing parts that liberals feared set the stage for the creation of an Islamic state.
The new draft constitution is a key first step in implementing a political transition laid down by the military after it removed Mohammed Morsi from power. A 50 member panel declared the draft finished Monday, paving the way for a nationwide referendum within 30 days to ratify the document.
The military-backed government has heralded the draft charter as a step toward democracy — seeking to prove the credentials of the post-Morsi system amid continuing protests by Islamists furious about the coup against the country’s first freely elected president.
The amended document enshrines personal and political rights in stronger language than past constitutions. But rights experts express fears that the political power carved out for the military could leave those rights irrelevant.
One key clause states that for the next two presidential terms, the armed forces will enjoy the exclusive right of naming the defense minister, an arrangement that gives the military autonomy above any civilian oversight and leaves the power of the president uncertain. The charter does not say how the post will be filled after that eight-year transitional period.
“This just paves the way for a bigger role for the army in becoming the main power broker,” said Hossam el-Hamalawy, a leading member of the Revolutionary Socialists movement, a key player in the 2011 uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak, who ruled the country for 29 years.
The constitutional panel, appointed by the government and dominated by liberals, worked mainly behind closed doors. On Monday, with their work completed, the members praised the 67-page draft.
“It is now the right of every Egyptian to declare that this is their constitution,” said Bishop Bola, the representative of the Coptic Orthodox Church on the panel.
“I believe this is a constitution for a civic, modern and democratic state in 90 percent of its articles. It’s a leap in Egypt’s life, and I hope people vote for it in large numbers,” leftist politician and panel member Hussein Abdel-Razik said.
The one ultraconservative Islamist on the panel, Mohammed Ibrahim Mansour of the al-Nour Party, said the document struck a good balance between the teachings of Islam and civil freedoms.
His support comes despite the removal of several provisions that ultraconservative Islamists had introduced into the Morsi-era charter, worrying liberals who feared they could be a prelude toward stricter implementation of Islamic law, or Shariah.
The new version retains Article 2, which says the “principles” of Shariah are the basis for legislation, a phrase that has been in all Egyptian constitutions since the 1970s.
But it removes a Morsi-era provision that gave a more precise definition for “principles” that could have been used to legislate stricter Islamic law. It also deletes a reference to a role for Al-Azhar, the country’s main Islamic institution, in overseeing legislation.
The new charter also goes further than its predecessors in guaranteeing freedom of expression and other rights. It criminalizes torture and ensures equality between men and women, as well as women’s and children’s rights. It guarantees the freedom of belief as “absolute.”
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