Nobel laureate Mohamed ElBaradei on Tuesday attacked the planned formation of the committee tasked with writing the country's new constitution, describing it as an attempt to undermine the 25 January revolution.
On Twitter, the leading founder of the Constitution Party said Egyptians will not feel represented by the Constituent Assembly, whose structure was laid out in an agreement Thursday between Islamist and civil political groups.
ElBaradei stressed that attempts to sabotage the revolution are doomed to fail.
Parliament approved on Monday a law regulating the selection of the constitutional panel’s 100 members, and is scheduled to choose those members on Tuesday.
According to the previous agreement on the assembly, 50 percent of its seats would go to Islamist parties, and the other 50 percent to civil and secular forces. But at a Sunday meeting of civil political forces to discuss nominations, several important parties said they would withdraw from the assembly, refusing to count Al-Azhar, Christian churches and state institutions as part of the assembly bloc allocated to civil forces.
The withdrawing parties said they would give up their seats to underrepresented segments of society, including women, Copts and laborers.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
