Campaigners seeking new constitution threaten 'million man march' if their demands are not met

Ahram Online , Monday 20 Jun 2011

The Constitution First campaign, which aims to collect 15 million signatures in support of its demand, will stage a million person demonstration if Egypt's ruling military council refuses

A number of political groups and parties have called for a million person demonstration to take place on Friday 8 July under the slogan “correcting the path and determining the fate”, to demand the drafting of a new constitution before the parliamentary elections set for September.

The Freedom Front for Peaceful Change (FFPC) group organised a press conference on Monday which included 40 representatives of the different political groups that uphold the demand and which are currently undertaking a campaign to collect 15 million signatures in support. The FFPC media coordinator, Essam El-Sherif, said at the conference that the campaign has so far succeeded in collecting approximately 3 million signatures and has spread to almost all of Egypt’s governorates. 

El-Sherif added that a delegation will head to the council of ministers on Tuesday to meet with interim Prime Minister Essam Sharaf to convince him to sign the petition demanding the drafting of a new constitution.

The petition, which has been written by 47 legal experts, demands the formation of a constitutional committee which includes representatives of all social and political groups and figures. The petition will be submitted to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), according to El-Sherif.

The campaign coordinator Hassan Abd El-Wahab added that if SCAF refuses the demand, a “million person” demonstration will be called for to take place on 8 July in Tahrir Square. 

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