Political groups are scheduled to meet Wednesday to resolve the Constituent Assembly formation issue after all groups have agreed on standards seeking appropriate representation of all social segments, MP Wahid Abdel Meguid has said.
Abdel Meguid, a member of the committee tasked with resolving the issue, told Al-Masry Al-Youm that nine members of religious institutions will be part of the 100-member assembly that will write the constitution: five from Al-Azhar, two from the Coptic Orthodox Church, one from the Catholic Church and one from the evangelical church.
He said law figures including judges and constitutional experts will be represented by 15 seats, and syndicates will have eight seats. Public figures will be chosen by the end of the meeting, represented by 10 members.
“The next meeting will see final consensus over the issue,” Abdel Meguid said, adding that it would be the last such meeting.
“Disagreement among political forces was only about the political parties’ representation in the assembly. The Salafi Nour Party rejected political parties' representation at 37 percent, demanding it be 39 percent. However, the Democratic Egyptian Party and others demand representation be less than 37 percent,” he said.
He said political groups had agreed on voting procedures for each article of the new constitution, and that voting will take place in two steps.
At least 67 percent of the assembly members should agree on an article to finalize it, Abdel Meguid said. If this does not happen, the meeting would be postponed for 48 hours for a re-vote. In the re-vote, no less than 57 percent of members should agree on the article to finalize it.
Hatem Abdel Azim, a member of Parliament’s legislative committee, said, “The Constituent Assembly issue will end this week, and the committee will finalize a draft of the standards. It expects no crises while reviewing the standards as it had held hearing sessions while drafting them.”
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
