Courcy’s Intelligence Brief

Egypt’s 50-member constitutional panel approved a new draft constitution on 1 December.  Not surprisingly there are significant differences with the 2012 constitution because the group devising it is so different.

The 2012 document was drafted by a Constituent Assembly (CA) of 100 members who had been elected by the two houses of parliament.  As about 75% of parliament comprised Islamists, it is not surprising that Islamists formed a high proportion of the CA, about 48% according to the Muslim Brotherhood.  The present panel has just two Islamists amongst its 50 members.

Nevertheless, the new draft constitution does keep the 2012 provision that says that “Islam is the religion of the state. Principles of Islamic Sharia are the main source of legislation.”  However, left out is Article 219 which defined the principles of Sharia as “general evidence, foundational rules, rules of jurisprudence, and credible sources accepted in Sunni doctrines and by the larger community”.  The problem with this article, complained liberals, is that it seemed to allow for the annulling of any existing laws that might contradict Sharia.  The 2013 draft holds that “verdicts of the Supreme Constitutional Court represent the reference when interpreting the principles of Sharia”.

Not surprisingly, the Salafists are unhappy about the change of emphasis.  The deputy chief of the country’s largest Salafist group, Yasir Burhami of Salafist Call, described the new constitution as the “worst in Egypt’s history”.  He also confirmed that Salafists would not vote for it.

Another cause of concern for the Islamists is the article which “bans the formation of political parties along religious lines”, which is a considerable strengthening of the rather weak provision in the 2012 constitution which said that “political parties that discriminate on the basis of gender, origin, or religion are not allowed to be formed”.

Another area of controversy is a provision that seems to tie the president’s hands on the appointment of the defence minister.  The new document says: “Defence Minister is appointed after the approval of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces and the provisions of this article are valid through two consecutive presidential terms after the constitution is put into effect.”

There has also been a widening of the conditions under which a civilian might be tried by a military court.  The new constitution says: “Civilians must not stand trial before military courts except for crimes that constitute direct assault on military facilities, camps of the armed forces military equipment, vehicles, weapons, ammunition, documents, secrets, money, military factories, or crimes that involve direct assaults on men of the armed forces while performing their tasks.”

Quotas for the representation of farmers and workers in the House of Representatives (HR) have been removed, and unlike in the 2012 version there seems to be better provision for women who will be “properly represented in legislative bodies, in a way defined by law”.  The new constitution also says that the state will work “to make youth, Christians, handicapped, and Egyptian expatriates properly represented in the HR in the first election that follows the passage of this constitution”.

This latter provision apparently had difficulty achieving the required 75% majority in constitutional panel, but was eventually passed under pressure from panel chairman Amr Musa.  However, Musa was unable to achieve the same result with the provisions for the electoral system, which envisaged that two-thirds of the HR’s seats would be elected on the basis of individual candidates and one-third via electoral lists.  The issue is now to be resolved by the interim president in his current role as the legislative authority.

The next step is for the constitution to be approved by a referendum 30 days after being presented to the president, which it was on 3 December.