The SCAF repeatedly dismissed Advisory Council members’ opinions, and there was no real dialogue between the council and decision-making institutions, said Mohamed Nour Farahat, former secretary general of the advisory council.
The Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) asked to hold a meeting with the Advisory Council on Saturday to discuss Farahat's resignation. In explanation of his decision to resign, Farhat had complained that “the council's work is an effort in vain." He had said that the council lost its raison d’etre, which was mainly to propose criteria for the formation of the constituent assembly that would be tasked with writing the new constitution.
Mansour Hassan, chairman of the Advisory Council, told Al-Masry Al-Youm that the SCAF had not identified specific topics for the Saturday meeting.
Farahat said he “still insists on his resignation from the council, unless the SCAF deals with its problems seriously,” stressing that his resignation “is irreversible because the problems are still present.”
“If the SCAF does not issue a constitutional declaration setting forth standards for the constituent assembly that will draft the constitution, the majority in Parliament will select the assembly with no restrictions,” he added.
Farahat noted that the resulting assembly could be biased toward the Islamist parliamentary majority, thus jeopardizing that Egypt’s new constitution will be consensual.
Hassan Nafea, head of the Advisory Council's National Consensus Committee, said that the committee will hold its next meeting in two weeks to discuss criteria for the selection of constituent assembly members.
Mohamed al-Kholy, spokesperson for the council, said that political forces have promised their continued participation in national consensus committee meetings. Kholy attributed the low number of participants in a meeting held two days ago to “the opening sessions of the People's Assembly, a traffic jam on the eve of the anniversary of the revolution, and rainfall,” dismissing the suggestion that some political forces are boycotting the meetings.
Translated from Al-Masry Al-Youm
A previous version of this article paraphrased Farahat as saying that Egypt's ruling military council made dialogue between the Advisory Council and decision-making institutions impossible. This was inaccurate and the line been changed to reflect the accurate paraphrase.
