Freedom and Justice Party Continues to Reach Out to Resolve Constituent Assembly Impasse

MP Ali Fateh Al-Bab, majority leader of the Shura Council and member of the Constituent Assembly (CA) representing the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), said that elected members who did not attend CA meetings were being considered ‘absent’ rather than ‘withdrawn’, pointing out that no official resignation has been reported to the Assembly at all. He stressed that it is more appropriate for members to attend the Assembly meeting, take part, and declare their views, rejection, acceptance, or withdrawal, through the institutional legal framework.

Further, Fateh Al-Bab said the FJP is still reaching out for those members who didn’t attend the CA meetings, inviting them to return as honored members. He pointed that a special committee was formed to review their concerns and persuade them to return.

Reiterating that the Constituent Assembly now includes all hues of Egyptian society, Fateh Al-Bab stressed that withdrawal from the CA, in general, is a rejection of the principles of democracy and of popular will. Those who refuse the CA membership composition, indeed reject the legislative will, and thus contradict the minimum and most basic principles of democracy.

He explained that those who insist on their decision to withdraw from the Assembly will be replaced by elected members from the ‘reserve’ list.