Boycott It !

The Muslim Brotherhood group declared its boycott to the referendum on the constitutional amendments that the National Democratic party (NDP) majority in the People’s Assembly approved while they were rejected by MPs for the opposition, independents, Muslim Brotherhood, Al Karma, Al Wafd, Tagamue and two NDP MPs.
 
The referendum on amending the 34 articles of the constitution will be held next Monday after putting its date earlier than April, 4, a move that Mohamed Saad Al Katatni, the head of the MB parliamentary bloc, attributed to the NDP plans for depriving the opposition from the time available for organizing protests against the referendum.
 
The boycott was also declared by Kifaya Movement, Karama Party (under construction) and the front of independent MPs in the People’s Assembly, calling on the Egyptian people for not participating in the crime of the constitutional coup.
 
Negative Participation
 
On the other hand, Web activists see that the boycott is a negative participation with the regime in approving these amendments; Alaa Saif the blogger of www.manalaa.net/ sees Kifaya Movement’s call for boycotting the referendum on the constitutional amendments as a serious mistake, adding that despite the dim hope of a fair referendum but the participation, casting the vote, and the popular supervision on the elections are necessary and positive steps; he confirmed that calling on people to stay at home is the very passivity; Alaa called on, from his weblog, readers not to boycott, go to the ballot box and declare their rejection on the ballot paper.
 
Dr. Essam El-Erian, the head of the political section in the Muslim Brotherhood group, stressed on the importance of the boycott, saying: all referendums all always rigged, the suggestions of the political and national powers and opposition parties weren’t respected while announcing, drafting and approving these amendments. They are one-sided dictates.
 
Police State
 
The amendments include introducing a paragraph to article 179 to pave the way for giving the security services limitless powers in arresting persons, ransacking houses, phone wiretapping as a part of an anti-terrorism law that will be issued later to replace the state of emergency; the amendments will also include sidelining the judges from supervising the elections after amending article 88 that allocated supervising the elections for an independent commission to be picked up by the executive authority which is controlled by the ruling National Party; these amendments are harming the Muslim Brotherhood, the biggest opposition group in Egypt, because they include an amendment stipulating banning any political activity on a religious basis to dim the MB’s hopes for becoming a recognized political party.
 
We Reject Them Because We Love It
 
University students declared their rejection to the amendments; 1000 students demonstrated in Cairo and Helwan the universities condemning the National Democratic Party’s MPs who gave a priority to their interests and gave a blind eye to the public interest, according to the students; the students said in a statement ” We reject these amendments because we love Egypt” demanding their colleagues to boycott the referendum on these amendments and demanded the Egyptian regime for endorsing a real reform to lead Egypt to progress and not to seek personal interests because this may lead Egypt to the abyss of shame and backwardness.

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