Egypt’s liberal coalition says not consulted enough on new charter

Egypt's main liberal coalition –the National Salvation Front (NSF) -- rejected on Tuesday a constitutional declaration issued by the country’s interim president, and asked for more changes and wider consultation on the document vital to the country's political transition, AFP reported.

Hussein Abdel Ghani, member of the coalition, told Al Arabiya that there were “reservations” about the charter, saying not enough consultations were conducted before the issuance of the charter by the interim president appointed by the army.

Among its top leaders is former U.N. diplomat Mohamed ElBaradei, who was earlier chosen as deputy president for foreign affairs.
Earlier, Egypt’s Tamarod (rebellion) campaign which launched the protests that prompted the ouster of president Mohammad Mursi on Tuesday slammed the country’s interim charter as “dictatorial.”

“It is impossible to accept the (constitutional declaration - C.D.) because it founds a new dictatorship. We will hand over to the (military-installed caretaker) president an amendment to the C.D,” the group said on its official Twitter account.

On Monday, Egypt’s interim president Adly Mansour adopted a temporary constitution, almost a week after he was appointed by the military to head the Arab world’s most populous country following Mursi’s overthrow.

The declaration outlines the president’s powers and lays out a timetable for the transition which is to last around six months until presidential elections are held.

Tamarod, a grassroots movements which persuaded millions of Egyptians to take to the streets to call for Mursi’s ouster, was a key player in army-sponsored talks aimed at defining the country’s roadmap.

The group said the constitutional declaration granted the president too many powers in a “setback for the revolution.

(With AFP anf Reuters)