Egyptian panel begins voting on draft constitution
By Nehal El-Sherif and Ramadan Al-Fatash, dpa
Cairo (dpa) - Voting on a draft Egyptian constitutional charter, which the opposition says would boost the army's hold on power, started Saturday among members of a commission tasked with the rewriting job.
The proposed constitution is the first major step in a transitional road map announced by the military after the ouster of Mohammed Morsi, Egypt's first democratically elected president.
The plan also calls for parliamentary and presidential elections to be conducted next year.
Members have already approved 138 of a total 247 articles through electronic voting. The process, broadcast live on state television, will resume on Sunday afternoon, when most of the controversial articles will be announced.
Proposed constitutional amendments give the army the power to appoint and sack the defence minister, media reports said.
Amr Moussa, head of the 50-member panel, denied reports that only the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces has the right to sack the defence minister.
"There is no immunity to the position of defence minister in the constitution. There are only specific transitional articles with specific periods," Moussa told reporters before the session began.
Defence Minister Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi is seen as the architect of Morsi's ouster.
The army deposed Morsi in July after mass street protests against his one-year rule. It then launched a deadly crackdown on Islamist groups, including Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood.
The draft also reportedly allows civilians to be tried in military courts, where hearings are held behind closed doors and verdicts cannot be appealed.
Final details of the draft charter, which is to replace the Islamist-influenced 2012 constitution suspended by the military, have yet to be officially released.
Moussa argued that the new draft "is radically different" and described it as "a constitution for social justice" as it "includes 45 articles ensuring real rights for workers and farmers."
Moussa said the new constitution should usher Egypt into a new future.
"After a few years, Egypt's population will rise to 100 million, and after 40 years to 150 million ... so, it was necessary that the new constitution be drafted to reflect the aspirations and demands of the coming generations."
"We hope that all the people support this constitution in the referendum, so that we would move from disorder to stability and from social backwardness to societal progress," he added.
The mainly secular panel is to finish voting on the proposed document by Tuesday, when its mandate expires.
If the 50-member assembly approves the draft, interim President Adly Mansour is expected to put it to a nationwide referendum.
Two members did not attend Saturday's voting session. Moussa said one member apologized while the other was having problems with his union over his representation in the panel.
The panel includes representatives from political parties, civil society, the army, the police, as well as the religious institutions: the Muslim Sunni al-Azhar and the Coptic church. Only two Islamists are in the assembly.
The panel approved an article which bans parties based on religious grounds, which is seen as a threat to Morsi's Freedom and Justice Party, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, as well as the Salafist al-Nour party which supported Morsi's ouster.
Earlier Saturday, clashes erupted in central Cairo when protesters rallied against a new law restricting public protests. Police fired tear gas to disperse the crowds, which gathered as prominent activist Ahmed Maher turned himself in after prosecutors ordered his detention.
Maher, the founder of the April 6 Youth Movement, was detained for four days on charges of assaulting a police officer and organizing a protest Tuesday without requesting permission from the Interior Ministry, as demanded by a new law regulating gatherings.
Activists said that more than 50 people were arrested Tuesday. Some of them are jailed pending investigation for "being part of a mob, protesting without notification to authorities, obstructing a road and carrying weapons."
Twenty-four of them began a hunger strike on Thursday to protest against torture in custody, activists said.
Meanwhile, an appeals court fined activist and blogger Ahmed Douma 20,000 Egyptian pounds (some 2,906 dollars) after being found guilty of insulting Morsi.
The original sentence was in June, when Douma was handed six months in prison for insulting Morsi and circulating false news on a television programme.
Douma said on his Twitter account that he would be jailed for three months if he did not pay the fine.
