By Mahitab Assran
The constituent assembly supported by Tamarod and Al-Nour Party is amending the 2012 constitution but the 6 April youth movement and Monshaquon want to write an entirely new one.
Tamarod’s media advisor, Mohamed Heikal said “we want to contain the situation” and that writing new constitution will extend the transitional period and “extending the transitional period is dangerous.”
The 6 April Democratic Front is also calling for the writing of a new constitution. According to Tarek Al-Khouly a member of the front, the 2012 constitution has a “dysfunction in the relationship between the legislative and executive powers”.
Also the current post 30 June era is in need of a modern constitution that is composed of 50 to 60 articles rather than a constitution that is made of more than 200 articles [2012 constitution] and one that better defines the relationship between the powers.
“Writing a new constitution is vital in stopping deals from certain groups that would apply pressure to keep certain articles in return for changing others” Al-Khouly added.
The Monshaquon movement issued a statement on Tuesday which declared their support for writing a new constitution instead of amending the 2012 one. According to the statement the 2012 constitution has several “flaws”; specifically in the articles regarding the armed forces, transitional justice and empowering the youth. Monshaquon is a movement that split from the Muslim Brotherhood and is based on empowering youth.
Al-Nour Party has previously announced that they are against re-writing the whole constitution and only wish to amend certain articles. Their former spokesman Nadder Bakkar said during the meeting the party had with Minister of Defence Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi and other senior officials to create the roadmap, it was agreed that the “identity articles” will not be changed.
Several institutions and groups of people submitted suggestions to the constituent assembly to alter the 2012 constitution. So far the assembly has looked through 228 suggestions and is planning on redrafting 80 articles from the 2012 constitution.
Additional reporting by Ibrahim Al-Masry
