Egypt’s Advisory Council wants constitution before president

Advisory Council Egypt’s Advisory Council to the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) has called on the Supreme Committee to supervise the presidential elections in order to speed up the timetable, which has been announced to open to presidential nominations on March 10.
The news was announced during a press conference on Tuesday, where the media spokesman for the council Mohamed Al-Kholi said that “most of the members agreed on the need to write a new constitution for the country before the presidential elections.” Al-Kholi also called on the SCAF to start a “dialogue between trade unions, political parties and legislative bodies in Egypt on the regulations of the selection of the Constitutional Assembly, which will be assigned with the drafting of the new constitution.”
The council demanded that the Supreme Committee oversee the presidential elections to choose the Constituent Assembly to draw up a constitution by February 23, after the end of the Shura Council elections.
The Advisory Council has also called on the military junta to “activate a comprehensive dialogue between the different segments of society, such as labor unions, peasants, youth, students, women and Copts in the selection of the new constitution.”
Sameh Ashour, the Vice-President of the council, said that the council expects the anticipation of transfer of power to an elected president, pointing out that the military council “expressed its commitment to open the door for the presidency, stressing the need to have the constitution drafted before the power transfer takes place, in order to regulate the new president’s powers.”
Ashour also stressed that the constitution would not only be drafted by a single political force in parliament, calling on the SCAF to issue an amendment to Article 60 of the Constitutional Declaration, “to prevent the monopoly of the constitutional assembly's selection by a certain political party.”
Meanwhile, newspaper Al-Ahram quoted a government minister as saying that Egypt’s first presidential election since Hosni Mubarak was overthrown a year ago will be held by late May.
Army leaders who took over from Mubarak in February last year have faced street protests and widespread demands that they hand power to civilians sooner than the end-June deadline they had set themselves.
Officials announced earlier this month that nominations for the race would be accepted from March 10, signalling that the generals have accelerated their planned handover of power by about a month.
Minister for Parliamentary Affairs and Local Development Mohamed Attia told Al-Ahram the election would be held by late May, giving candidates three weeks to declare their candidature and 45 days for campaigning. Most candidates have already begun campaigning unofficially.
The Judicial Election Committee is the only body with the authority to set the poll date.
Under new rules approved in a referendum last year, presidents will in future be limited to two consecutive, four-year terms.