The American University in Cairo on Sunday hosted the panel conference “Political Strategies on the Transitional Constitutional Period: Before and After the Referendum” as part of the Tahrir Dialogue Discussion Panel Series. Under panel discussion were the constitutional amendments referendum slated for 19 March and the current transitional phase.
The panel, talking in Arabic with English translation, included Fathy Fikri, professor of constitutional law at Cairo University, Rahab al-Mahdi, assistant professor of political science at AUC, Sobhi Saleh, lawyer and member of the amendments committee, Tahani al-Gebali, judge and deputy head of Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court, and Nasser Abdul Hamid, member of the Youth of the Revolution Coalition.
Gianluca Parolin, assistant professor of law at AUC and the moderator, opened the discussion. He underlined the persistence of several contradictory signals coming from different institutions during the current constitutional transition.
First of these is the amendments committee, appointed by the armed forces to propose amendments to the Constitution, which “seems to have based some considerations on different political views to be as comprehensive as possible,” and yet did not include all different political orientations. Second is the text of the amendments, where contradictory signals can be found, among which was “Article 75 that toughens the institutional requirements or Aarticle 189, which opens the way to constitutional change but through an indirectly elected committee.” Finally, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, according to Parolin, “has showed remarkable constitutional sensibility when accommodating for transitional provisions to the amendments and appointing two committees to oversee the reactions to the amendments, but, at the same time, it accelerated the schedule for the referendum.”
“Moving from revolutionary legality to the institutional legality,” was the main aim of the expertise composing the amendments committee, explained Saleh, a member of the committee. “The committee dealt with the provisions to guarantee the transition and achieve two goals, namely securing presidential elections and guaranteeing fairness in the parliamentary elections, giving the people the right to exercise their will.”
Other speakers openly claimed the necessity to cast a "No" vote rather than boycotting the referendum. However, as Hamid, a member of the Youth of the Revolution Coalition, underlined, “the floor is open now, so if the majority votes 'Yes,' this is democracy.” Hamid pointed out how the coalition he represents has the duty to call people to vote and explain what is the best thing for them, but anyone can cast his "Yes" or "No" ballot — “either way, their participation in the referendum is really important.”
As Hamid clarified, toppling former President Hosni Mubarak and everything else related to the regime was the first aim of the 25 January 25 uprising and the principle on which the movement itself was based. “Nowadays,” he went on, “our movement believes it is better to make a constitutional declaration, requesting for presidential elections first and the parliamentary vote after, or electing a president who will call for a new constitution.”
The Youth of the Revolution Coalition asked for a delay in holding parliamentary elections until the end of the year in order to give the new political arena the time to structure political parties and allow the participation of all the people.
Tahani al-Gebali, judge and deputy head of Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court, openly criticized the proposed constitutional amendments, saying “they drag citizens toward something unknown to them.”
Tahani explained how a 100-person committee appointed to draft a new constitution should represent all of Egyptian society, and therefore be constituted by people from outside the two houses of the parliament.
“The power of enacting a constitution is different to the power to change some amendments. The constitution should be based upon the direct will of the people because it is something that people give to themselves, it should shape the new democratic situation. All should be equally represented and have their rights,” Egypt’s first female judge and vice president of the Supreme Constitutional Court asserted.
“We rebelled against the ruling regime not against the state, which has the ability to dialogue with all political powers,” Tahani concluded.
According to Fathy Fikri, professor of constitutional law at Cairo University, citizens should not accept the implementation of the proposed amendments because “they were not put forward to the people,” a step that he considers necessary when amending a social contract like the Constitution.
Fikry criticized the decision of the technical committee “to enact a mechanism on other processes rather than merely preparing amendments for the presidential part,” and for not having taken any steps to listen to all the different forces before taking any decision.
“In a social contract, you have the right to express your opinion,” Fikri went on, “and the committee should consider the opinion of the grassroots, not only of its own members.” According to him, if the referendum is not passed, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces will stay for another six months, until the call for new elections and the end of the transition period. On the contrary, if the referendum passes, the transitional period will probably be led by other authorities.
“Every time the Constitution was appealed, the results were catastrophic. So how can we accept that dictatorial power will continue?” Fikri addressed the audience. “We need to establish the foundation of a new state; this is the message of the referendum.”
