The People’s Assembly on Tuesday reached an agreement that could facilitate the re-formation of the assembly that will draft the constitution, after the previous body was suspended, parliamentary sources said.
On 10 April, an administrative court ordered the suspension of the 100-member, Islamist-dominated Constituent Assembly chosen by Parliament to write the new constitution ahead of the presidential election.
The same sources said People’s Assembly Speaker Saad al-Katatny tasked the Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee with preparing a report that sums up the agreed-upon criteria for choosing the new body.
The report will contain proposals rather than a draft law as initially discussed, and will be submitted to a joint session of Parliament to be used as guidelines, according to the same sources.
This should rectify Katatny’s earlier decision to ask the same committee to prepare a draft law governing the selection process in violation of the Constitutional Declaration, the sources added.
The decision to entrust the legislative committee with preparing that guidelines came after intensive discussions inside Parliament and within the Freedom and Justice Party to resolve the problem.
According to a copy of the draft report obtained by Al-Masry Al-Youm, the majority of participants agreed on the need to have all segments of society represented in the Constituent Assembly, despite differences on the relative weight to be given to each.
The report mentioned including 23 representation categories, including 10 constitutional experts, five members of judicial institutions, five members of Al-Azhar and four Coptic church members, 10 women, 10 members of professional syndicates and labor unions, and two farmers.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
