CAIRO– Amr Moussa, chairman of Egypt's constitution-amending committee, has said the panel was drafting a "brand new" national charter.
CAIRO– Amr Moussa, chairman of Egypt’s constitution-amending committee, has said the panel was drafting a “brand new” national charter.
“We should add new articles bolstering rights and freedoms rather than fiddle over whether we should amend the constitution or write a totally new one,” Moussa told panel members on Wednesday.
Committee members have been at odds over whether they should amend the suspended 2012 constitution – approved via a popular referendum last year – or draw up a new charter from scratch.
Opponents of a new constitution argue that a constitutional declaration announced in July by interim President Adly Mansour stipulates that the 2012 charter merely be amended.
Others, however, say that simply amending the constitution will put it at risk of being challenged in court for unconstitutionality.
According to Moussa, a former Arab League chief, legal experts have reassured panel members that they would not be violating Egypt’s army-imposed transitional roadmap if they drew up a new constitution.
The new charter, he said, would have a special emphasis on rights, freedoms, development, social justice, decentralization and the separation of powers.
Amendment of the constitution is a main component of a transitional roadmap unveiled by the military following the July 3 ouster of elected president Mohamed Morsi.
