Egypt to have second try at constitution assembly

Egypt will try again on Tuesday to set up an assembly to write a new constitution, the parliament speaker said on Saturday, after the previous such body was dissolved for failing to represent all interests following the fall of Hosni Mubarak’s government.

The make-up of the constitutional committee has been in deadlock since April after a court ordered a previous body dissolved for being dominated by Islamists and failing to fairly represent Egypt’s diverse society. Islamists control around 70 percent of parliament.

“We have invited the elected parliament members to a joint meeting at 11 am on Tuesday...to elect a 100-member assembly to prepare a new constitution for the state,” Parliamentary speaker Saad al-Katatni said.

“All the political parties and powers have agreed that a full balance and representation of all powers and interests will be taken into consideration while forming the assembly,” he added.

Katatni, who heads the parliamentary committee in charge of choosing the assembly’s members and belongs to the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, the biggest parliamentary party, had asked public institutes, courts, syndicates and religious bodies on Friday for their nominations for the new assembly.

The new constitution is expected to define the president’s powers and citizen rights. The delay in picking the panel has left Egypt in a constitutional vacuum one week before a final stage of a presidential vote on June 16-17.

The military council that took over after Mubarak was toppled last year has promised to hand over to a newly elected president by July 1, but it is unclear what authority the new head of state will have.

The military council on Tuesday gave political parties a 48-hour deadline to agree on the make-up of the new constitution-drafting assembly.

Parties indicated during a meeting with the military council on Thursday that the assembly would be made up of 39 members of political parties and 61 public figures including union members, lawyers, judges and religious leaders.

Mubarak supporters protest

Meanwhile around 200 Mubarak supporters began a protest which they said would continue until the deposed leader is transferred from prison to hospital.

Security officials and media have reported a severe deterioration in the 84-year-old’s health since he was sentenced to life last week for his role in the killing of hundreds of protesters during last year’s popular uprising that toppled him.

“There are around 200 Mubarak’s supporters and lawyers in front of the Prisons Authority and we will not leave until Mubarak is transferred to either a military or private hospital,” said Mohamed Abdel Razek, one of Mubarak’s lawyers.

Abdel Razek said the general prosecutor had told him there was “no barrier” to his request to move Mubarak from the hospital wing of Cairo’s Tora prison but that the decision had to be taken by the Prisons Authority.

Last week, security sources said Mubarak was given artificial respiration five times in one day and doctors recommended he be moved to a military hospital or back to the medical facility he was in prior to his conviction.

State’s news agency MENA said on Saturday Mubarak - who was wheeled into court to attend his trial on a hospital bed - risked a stroke.

The acquittal of six of Mubarak’s top security officials angered those who say his old guard is still ruling from behind the scenes.

Some Egyptians had wanted Mubarak executed and the sentencing triggered days of nationwide protests demanding both a retrial and enforcement of a law, passed by parliament but not implemented, banning Mubarak-era officials from politics. The constitutional court will rule on the law’s validity on June 14.

A June 16-17 presidential run-off election will pit Mubarak’s last prime minister Ahmed Shafiq against Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Mursi, the final step before the army, which took charge when Mubarak was toppled, formally hands over power by July 1.