Dr. Beltagy: Constituent Assembly a Chance for National Accord

Dr. Beltagy: Constituent Assembly a Chance for National Accord

Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) Executive Bureau member and MP Dr. Mohamed Beltagy asserted that the re-formation of the constituent committee for drafting the new constitution is an opportunity for national accord and correcting past mistakes, away from the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF).

 

On his Facebook page, Dr. Beltagy expressed that in the meeting between SCAF and leaders of parliamentary parties, yesterday, three mistakes were made. The first was SCAF’s involvement in a matter which, constitutionally, is the exclusive jurisdiction of parliament.

 

According to Dr. Beltagy, the second mistake of the SCAF meeting was: stipulating completion of the constitutional draft before presidential elections are held, a matter with obviously questionable motives, which threatens to disrupt the whole transition process, in addition to violating constitutional text flexibility.

 

The third mistake was agreement on the complete exclusion of the People’s Assembly and the Shura Council from membership of the Constituent Assembly, an unjustified switch from over representation of the two Houses of Parliament to complete exclusion of both.

 

Further, Dr. Beltagy saw that the solution was for the two chambers of parliament to re-form the assembly avoiding past mistakes by reducing representation of the two Houses of Parliament, approving a voting ratio that will guarantee wider consensus, away from control of the majority or delay by the minority, and establishing appropriate criteria and rules for the assembly re-formation.

 

Moreover, Dr. Beltagy suggested allowing sufficient time for nomination and election procedures, underscoring the priority of reaching political accord regarding names suggested by all for inclusion in the constitutional authoring panel, in order to recognize the wide areas of agreement and to determine points of difference.

 

Furthermore, Dr. Beltagy hoped for the meetings between parliamentary party representatives, this week, to succeed in reaching consensus without the need for referring to SCAF.