At a meeting Tuesday between Constituent Assembly head Hossam al-Gheriany and former US President Jimmy Carter, assembly members assured Carter that the constitution would be completed within a month at the most.
Carter said he met with ambassadors of various countries in Egypt who told him that finalizing the constitution is an important milestone for Egyp in terms of attracting investment and tourists.
The former US president reportedly called attention to the fact that the judiciary supervises the elections, a practice unheard of in the rest of the world, to which Gheriany replied that the Egyptian people trust only the judiciary to fulfil this task. . “But we will create an electoral commission to take over this responsibility,” he said.
Assembly Secretary General Amr Darrag said there are no differences within the assembly over the articles on religion. “Proof is that the head of the Rights and Freedoms Committee is a Coptic Christian,” he said, reassuring Carter that the constitution provides that all people are equal, with no differentiation due to religion or race.
The draft constitution which was announced this month is still being debated between different Islamist forces as well as seculars and liberals. Salafis and Jama’a al-Islamiya are demanding a greater role for Islamic Sharia in the new constitution, which other forces reject.
The Muslim Brotherhood’s Guidance Bureau has instructed Freedom and Justice Party leaders to organize a door-to-door campaign urging citizens to vote for the draft that is expected to be put to a referendum in December.
A Brotherhood source, who asked not to be named, told Al-Masry Al-Youm that Deputy Supreme Guide Khairat al-Shater had tasked the FJP’s vice head, Essam al-Erian, and Cairo Secretary Mohamed al-Beltagy with leading the campaign in Cairo and Upper Egypt, while FJP board member Farid Ismail and former MP Azza al-Garf would oversee the initiative in Lower Egypt.
Edited translation from MENA
