Political activists, legal scholars and government officials began a week-long conference on Saturday dedicated to discussing Egypt’s forthcoming constitution. But the National Accord Conference lacks the support of some key political groups and does not yet seem to have a unified sense of purpose.
One of the key aims of the conference is the preparation of a number of recommendations on the content of the future Egyptian constitution. The constitution itself is to be written by a committee to be elected by parliament after parliamentary elections in September, but the committee will be invited to consider recommendations resulting from the current conference.
Prime Minister Essam Sharaf, who attended the conference, said, "Egypt has a considerable constitutional heritage, which will help in drawing up a constitution."
Sharaf was not the only high-ranking figure at the event. Also in attendence were presidential hopeful Amr Moussa, newly appointed Arab League Secretary General Nabil al-Araby, Deputy Prime Minister Yehia al-Gamal, and representatives of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. Most of the traditional opposition parties were also there for the opening day, including representatives from the Wafd, Tagammu and Karama parties.
However, the legitimacy of the conference is undermined to a degree by a lack of participation of the Muslim Brotherhood and the key revolutionary youth groups. The Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist group widely considered the largest and best-organized political force in Egypt, recieved an invitation to the event but refused to attend. Some leading members of revolutionary youth groups, meanwhile, say their groups did not even receive invitations.
Nasser Abdel Hamid of the 25 January Revolution Youth Coalition, one of the largest such groups, told Al-Masry Al-Youm that his group did not receive an invitation, but would have participated had they been invited.
Deputy Prime Minister Yehia al-Gamal, meanwhile, said that invitations to the conference were sent to every political and civil society group in the country. “We even sent out an invitation to sporting clubs,” he said.
Reflecting on the limited make-up of the conference, legal expert Mohamed al-Islambouly commented, “I feel that the revolutionaries are not in power.”
Gamal said at the conference that several political groups had declined to take part because they believe there is no need to hold a conference on the constitution at this stage, particularly since the committee that writes the constitution later in the year will be free to ignore any recommendations issuing from the conference.
Muslim Brotherhood spokesman Gamal Heshmat confirmed to Al-Masry Al-Youm that this was the reason why the group had decided not to participate. The Brotherhood is expected to fare well in the upcoming parliamentary elections, and so will have a say in the make-up of the committee that writes the constitution.
For many who did attend, there was concern that the aims of the conference are too limited, and that any recommendations that issue from it should be binding on the future constitutional committee.
“We are in a state of fear and anxiety about the revolution, and want to be comforted. We would like this conference to produce obligatory conclusions for the constitution,” said Mohamed Bayoumy of the Karama Party.
Bayoumy, along with others, such as constitutional judge Tahanny al-Gebaly, made proposals that contradict the outcome of the national referendum on 19 March, which laid the roadmap for the parliamentary elections and the drawing up of the new constitution. Gebaly, for example, wanted to use the conference as a forum for the establishment of the guiding principles of the constitution.
However, Mohamed Mahsoob, dean of the Law School at Monufiya University, said that such an approach was inappropriate. “You cannot override the legitimate outcome of a referendum that had such high voter participation, no matter what you think of it. Many in this conference are talking as if the referendum did not happen,” he said.
Despite such differences of opinion, the conference is still serving a function as a forum for discussion in post-Mubarak Egypt. The ability of groups to join and discuss their opinions, hopes, and plans for the future in an open forum, with no restrictions on the topics or political views expressed, is more important, for many, than the ability to produce results.
“Any state of discourse is useful for us at this point,” said political analyst and activist Samer Morqos. In light of the ongoing issue of sectarianism, Morqos believes that dialogue can also help solve issues related to national identity.
As a researcher and activist on questions of citizenship, Morqos thinks that such conferences provide good opportunities to hash out topics.
"This is only the first round of discourse. We should lay down the groundword for consensus on basic issues,” Morqos said. “In later rounds we can start entertaining concrete results and obligations.”
