Egypt’s Constitutional Committee is expected to vote for the Constitution’s draft at the end of week

Amr Moussa, chairman of Egypt's Constitutional Committee
(Image: The Guardian)

Egypt’s 50-member Constitutional Committee is at the stage of finalizing its work and the final discussions over some controversial articles. The main work of the Committee is done, and the final voting for the draft of the new Constitution is expected to be held at the end of this week, probably till 30 November.

This announcement was made my Amr Moussa, chairman of the 50-member Constitutional Committee tasked with the amending of Egypt’s 2012 Constitution issued by the Islamist led Constituents Assembly and the time of Mohamed Morsy’s presidency. Amr Moussa has made this statement during his official meeting with the representatives of farmers and workers of Egypt.

According to the political roadmap imposed for the country by the Armed Forces after ouster of Islamist backed President Mohamed Morsy the next stage of the transitional period will be the voting for the draft and sending it to the interim President for approval. After the draft will be approved by the President, national referendum should be held.

Egypt’s Prime Minister Hazem El-Beblawy has announced recently that national referendum on the amended Constitution is expected to be held in the middle of January 2014.

Judge Hisham Mokhtar, official spokesperson for the High Elections Committee, has stated on Monday, 25 November, that the dates for the national referendum haven’t’ been set yet. He mentioned only that the referendum will be held in the two stages during two days and that the polls stations will be open from 9 a.m. till 9 p.m.

As for the monitoring of the referendum, the High Electoral Committee spokesperson stated that all the NGOs, Egyptian or foreign, which will meet the requirements and comply with the standards issued by the Electoral Committee, will have the right to participate in the observing of the polls.

Meanwhile Egyptian citizens and several political parties and activists are strongly criticizing the recently issued protest law which is very controversial document, especially under the current circumstances.