Mohamed Salmawi, spokesman for Egypt's 50-member constitutional committee amending the country's 2012 constitution, said that changes will be finalised before the Islamic Al-Adha feast next week.

 

A new draft will be ready for the General Committee to discuss after the holiday, Salmawi said, according to Al-Ahram's Arabic news website.

 

The constitutional-amending committee was set up last July as part of Egypt's transitional roadmap after the ousting of former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi by the army, following mass protests against his rule.

 

The 2012 constitution - despite passing a referendum - was widely attacked for being composed by the Muslim Brotherhood - the group from which Morsi hails - and their Islamist allies.

 

Salmawi said that the general features of the new constitution are becoming apparent, and that it lives up to the aspirations of the 25 January 2011 revolution and its hopes for an independent national will and rejection of religious rule, Al-Ahram's website reported.

 

According to the July roadmap, the amendments should be completed within a period of 60 days and put to a national referendum during a subsequent period of 30 days.

 

The Muslim Brotherhood and its allies have boycotted the amendments and refute the wider transitional process, demanding that Morsi be reinstated and all steps taken since his ouster be annulled.

 

Security forces have clamped down violently on the group and its supporters, resulting in the death of hundreds of pro-Morsi protesters and the arrest of hundreds more since the dispersal of two huge Islamist sit-ins in August.