Mohammed Ibrahim, the representative of the Islamist Salafist Al-Nour party, right, greets other members of the committee tasked with amending the countryís suspended constitution before they begin voting on a series of amendments, in the Shoura Council, Cairo, Egypt, Saturday, Nov. 30, 2013 (Photo: AP)
The 50-member committee tasked with writing a new constitution for Egypt commenced its second voting session on Sunday, in schedule with plans to finish readying the draft charter for a national referendum.
Voting continued on Chapter 5 of the draft charter, which will determine the country's system of governance.
Under Section 2 of Chapter 5 – The Executive – article 141 of the draft constitution stipulates that a president may serve for only four years and be re-elected only once. The article was passed with 46 votes and one abstention.
Article 146 of the same section – which passed with 44 votes in favour, three against, and two abstentions – states that the president will nominate the head of the cabinet who will submit his cabinet program for parliamentary approval.
If parliament does not agree over the submitted program, the majority party or coalition will then nominate another cabinet leader for a parliamentary majority vote. Otherwise parliament will be dissolved and a new one elected within the stipulated period of 60 days.
Article 153, passed by a unanimous 48 votes, specifies that a state of emergency can only be instituted by a parliamentary majority for a maximum period of three months. An extension can only occur through a two-thirds vote by parliament.
After one hour, the committee completed voting on articles concerning the government's executive branch. It then moved on to Section 3 of Chapter 5, which includes articles on the judicial system.
Article 185, which passed with a vote of 45 in favour, two against, and one abstention, necessitates that each judicial authority in Egypt have a separate budget which is subject to a detailed parliamentary review. The aggregate of the budget will be included in the state budget.
The article also states that the judiciary must be consulted when judicial-related legislation is being written.
Perhaps the most controversial article from Sunday's session was Article 204, from Section 4 of Chapter 5, which deals with military trials for civilians.
Under the terms of of the article, civilians may be tried at military tribunals only under certain conditions, detailed in the article as direct attacks against military facilities, on-duty military personnel, or military documents and secrets. The article passed with a relatively smaller level of approval – 41 votes in favour, with six against and one abstention.
Section 5 of Chapter 5 outlines the composition of the National Authority for Elections, defined in article 209 as an independent body tasked with running and supervising elections, and presided over by judges heading Egypt's major courts. The article was passed unanimously with 48 votes.
In Saturday's session, forty-eight members of the committee passed 138 articles, as well as the constitution's preamble. The committee's spokesperson, Mohamed Salmawy, said that 49 members attended Sunday's session.
Members of the committee completed voting on Chapters 1, 2, 3 and 4, which included articles on rights and freedoms, and the principle foundations of the state and society.
Of the 247 articles, four did not pass Sunday's voting session.
Those dealing with Egypt's coming parliamentary and presidential elections were the first to be turned down.
Article 229 dealt with the composition of candidates for the next parliamentary elections. Two-thirds were to be independent, with the remaining third drawn from party lists. The article was rejected, however, with 18 against, 27 in favour, and three abstentions.
An article must achieve 75 percent of the vote for it to pass.
Also failing to achieve consensus was Article 230, which offered an electoral timeline – parliamentary elections would be held after a minimum period of 30 days and a maximum one of 90 days, following the ratification of the constitution. The article also stipulated that presidential elections be held within a period of 30 days after parliament convenes.
Two other articles – 243 and 244 – did not pass. These allowed parliamentary quotas for workers, farmers, youth, Christians, and persons with disabilities. Thirty-three committee members voted against Article 243. Twenty-seven voted against Article 244.
All the above articles are under Section 2 of Chapter 6 of the charter, which are not permanent because they regulate the current transitional period.
The committee is currently holding a closed discussion session and will vote on the articles later on Sunday.
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