Parliament on Monday approved a law setting the rules governing the election of the Constituent Assembly, paving the way for a joint session Tuesday to elect the body.
The law consists of 12 articles that regulate all the work and functions of the panel, and indicates that the assembly will represent all of Egyptian society.
Freedom and Justice Party MP Sobhi Saleh said the law will guarantee the Constituent Assembly’s full independence. It details the standards of the assembly, the representation of its members and its voting procedures, he said.
But Adl Party MP Mostafa al-Naggar rejected the law, saying it only provides a framework and not real criteria for electing the assembly. The law could also be seen as an attempt to immunize the assembly from judicial rulings, and its drafting shows that Parliament is in conflict with other political forces, he said.
Last week, pressure from the ruling military council on the parties culminated in what appeared to be an agreement on how the assembly would be formed.
But on Monday, the Egyptian Democratic, Tagammu, Free Egyptians and Socialist Popular Alliance parties said they would refuse their seats in the assembly to protest what they called Islamist overrepresentation.
Islamists then hit back, charging that the liberal and leftist forces had gone back on an agreement concluded last week.
In a phone call with privately owned Dream TV channel on Monday, FJP MP Farid Ismail said the withdrawing parties want the Constituent Assembly to fail and the Supreme Constitutional Court to order the dissolution of Parliament on Thursday.
On Thursday, the Supreme Constitutional Court is set to consider the legality of the rules regulating the voting system for the last parliamentary elections, in a ruling that could lead to Parliament being disbanded.
"You had always claimed that Islamists sought a monopoly [on the Constituent Assembly] in order to hinder writing the constitution, while it's you who want [to hinder the process]," he said.
The row has cast a new shadow over a process held up since April, as Islamists that dominate Parliament have disagreed with other groups over how to apportion seats in the important body.
The writing of a new constitution is a central element of the transition to civilian rule mapped out by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which assumed power from Hosni Mubarak on 11 February 2011. The new constitution will replace one that underpinned Mubarak's three decades in power. Up for debate are crucial questions such as the extent of presidential powers and if Parliament should be given new authority.
The generals are due to hand over power to a new head of state on 1 July. The new president will be decided on Saturday and Sunday by a runoff vote between Ahmed Shafiq, Mubarak's last prime minister, and Mohamed Morsy, the Muslim Brotherhood's candidate.
‘Rejection of consensus’
In a joint statement, the withdrawing liberal and leftist parties said an initial agreement to divide the 100 assembly seats equally between Islamist and non-Islamist groups masked a different reality.
They subsequently found out that two Islamist parties had been included in the quota of seats set aside for civil forces, which the Brotherhood and Salafis have designated for leftists, liberals, andthestate's main Islamic, Christian and administrative institutions.
Criticizing the blueprint for the division of the seats, the liberal Free Egyptians Party said it would not send any representatives to the body and instead give its seats to women, Christians, workers, peasants and others — segments of society they said had been denied representation.
The signatories "hold the military council responsible for the erroneous path that led us to this crisis," the statement said.
"We also hold the Muslim Brotherhood responsible for resolving this crisis, which escalated because of the Brotherhood's insistence on domination and rejection of consensus," it added.
Islamists, meanwhile, said it was liberals who had overturned the earlier agreement.
"We haven't breached any agreement … clearly they agreed on something then changed their minds and want to backtrack, and they have no right to backtrack," Sayed Khalifa, an MP from Salafi-oriented Nour Party, said during a parliamentary session on Monday.
The FJP and Nour won some 70 percent of the seats in the upper and lower houses of Parliament in elections that ran from November 2011 to February 2012.
Under Egypt's interim system of government, Islamists' strength in Parliament has given them a strong influence over the shape of the Constitutional Assembly. Non-Islamists have accused them of exploiting their position to squeeze others out of the body, and previously filed a lawsuit that resulted in the process being suspended.
