A referendum approval of the new draft constitution will be considered a vote of confidence in Al-Sisi and his road map.
The new draft constitution was drawn up in two stages: On July 20, 2013, Interim President Adly Mansour appointed a committee comprising 10 judges and academics to contribute their proposals for a new constitution, based on the review of thousands of drafts submitted to them by various elements. A month later, the committee submitted its recommendations to President Mansour, who then appointed a Committee of 50, headed by Mubarak-era foreign minister and former Arab League secretary-general ‘Amr Moussa, and tasked with completing the draft of the constitution.
While the 2012 constitution drafting committee had been dominated by Islamic representatives, this new committee comprises predominantly civilian elements, with only five representatives from Islamic streams: three Al-Azhar members (the same number as representatives of the Christian churches); one representative from the Salafi Al-Nour party, and former MB member Kamal Al-Hilbawi.
This new draft constitution includes 247 articles, some 40 of which are completely new. About 100 articles taken from the 2012 constitution have been amended, and the remainder, also from the 2012 constitution, remain unchanged.
The Egyptian authorities are claiming that the new constitution is merely an amended version of the 2012 constitution. Its most striking difference from the 2012 document is the eradication of the Islamization direction, notably the so-called “identity clauses” regarding the status of the religion; the new draft constitution is more civil and rationalist in its tone, and it attempts to be more enlightened and tolerant, and to more firmly anchor human rights and freedoms. At the same time, the new draft grants greater privileges to the military establishment, including the authority to prosecute civilians in a military tribunal; this move has enraged many in the Egyptian street, even within the youth movements that supported Mursi’s ouster by the military.
The new draft constitution reflects the political balance of powers that has emerged following Mursi’s ouster:
–The exclusion of the MB from public life;
–The increase in the strength of forces and institutions not identified with political Islam – particularly the Supreme Constitutional Court;
–The weakening of Islamic elements and institutions – among them Al-Azhar and the Salafi Al-Nour party. Although these last two have had some influence in the drafting of the new constitution due to their backing of Al-Sisi in his removal of Mursi, but, in the current political climate of de-Islamization, their impact is much less than in the drafting of the 2012 constitution.
–The expansion of the military’s powers and the reduction in the powers of the president. At this time, it is the military establishment that is actually controlling the state, not the civilian interim president;
–The increased status of members of the former Mubarak regime, following the lifting of Article 232 of the 2012 constitution that calls for a “cooling-off period”, banning leaders of the Mubarak-era ruling National Democratic Party from participating in political activity or running for parliament or the presidency for a period of 10 years.
The MB rejects the draft constitution, as it has rejected every move by what it calls the “coup regime.” In its propaganda, the movement depicts it as a “constitution of blood” that betrays the January 25, 2011 revolution and sets up a military state, and also as a “church constitution” aimed at secularizing Egypt and eradicating its Islamic identity. For this reason, MB supporters, led by the National Alliance for the Support of Legitimacy, the Al-Gama’a Al-Islamiyya organization, and the Al-Wasat party, have called for boycotting the referendum, pointing out that its results will in any case be faked.
The Strong Egypt Party, headed by former presidential candidate ‘Abd Al-Mun’im Abu Al-Futouh, has called for voting against the constitution in the referendum, while most of the civil parties and movements, including Tamarrud and the National Salvation Front, except for April 6 Youth Movement, as well as the Coptic Church, Al-Azhar, and the Salafi Al-Nour party, have called for voting in favor.
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The following is a review of the main differences between Egypt’s new draft constitution and its 2012 constitution.
I. The “Identity Clauses”: Transitioning From Islamic To More Civil Orientation
The new draft constitution reverses the Islamization direction of the 2012 constitution. It does give Islam a place of honor by retaining Article 2, which is the main article concerning the status of the religion in the state, defining Islam as the “state religion” and the principles of the shari’a as “the primary source of legislation,” an achievement of the Islamic forces that has persisted since the days of President Anwar Sadat. The draft constitution also respectfully refers to Al-Azhar and its head as the state’s religious establishment. Overall, however, the draft takes a more civil and rationalist tone than the 2012 constitution, and reflects a more enlightened and tolerant approach in terms of the so-called “identity clauses” that concern religion.
At a press conference following the completion of the draft constitution, committee spokesman Muhammad Salmawi said: “The June 30 revolution [i.e., Mursi’s ouster]… called for the fall of the religious state and joined the voice of the first [revolutionary] wave on January 25, which shouted ‘Civil, civil, not religious, not military,’ in addition to [demanding] social justice, human dignity, freedom, and democracy. These were the starting points for this constitution, and it was therefore written to establish a civil state, and every one of its clauses stresses the concept of a civil state…”
The word ‘civil’ (madaniyya in Arabic) does indeed appear in the 2014 draft constitution; however, due to pressure from Al-Azhar and the Salafi Al-Nour party representatives, it is not in Article 1. Moreover, the term “civil state,” the inclusion of which was demanded by the civil forces, does not appear in the constitution, but only the term “civil government,” which appears in the preamble, and can be interpreted as referring strictly to the members of the government and not to the character of the state as a whole.
The Committee of 50 stripped the 2012 constitution of most of the additions to the 1971 constitution that its framers had added; these additions had given it a more religious Islamic hue than previous constitutions. The main addition that was removed was Article 219, which promised a broad interpretation for the “principles of shari’a,” which are set out in Article 2 as the primary source of legislation. The new draft constitution omits Article 219 entirely. It also omits the article forbidding harming the Prophet Muhammad and the requirement that Al-Azhar be consulted on shari’a matters. The Committee of 50 went even further and established the Supreme Constitutional Court as the sole authority in interpretation of the principles of shari’a.
The new draft constitution met many demands that left-wing and liberal-secular streams, the Coptic Church, and civil society organizations had made to the previous constitutional committee under Mursi. These included the addition of the term “civil” to the description of Egypt in the preamble, as opposed to “religious”; emphasis on the importance of the principle of citizenship (muwatana in Arabic) as the basis of affiliation to the state and on religious nondiscrimination; a guarantee of complete freedom of belief; restoration of the ban on religion-based activity and political parties; and recognition of international human rights conventions.