Cannot play media. You do not have the
correct version of the flash player.
President Mursi's decree has sparked huge
protests across Egypt
The assembly writing a new Egyptian
constitution says it hopes to vote on a draft version as early as Thursday.
The news came as the constitutional court
indicated it would rule on Sunday whether to dissolve the assembly.
Egypt's judiciary is in a stand-off with
President Mohammed Mursi and his Islamist supporters, after Mr Mursi last week
issued a decree granting himself sweeping new powers.
The decree has sparked huge protests across
the country.
As those protests continued on Wednesday,
officials at the constituent assembly said it was finishing its draft
constitution, even though Mr Mursi had recently extended its deadline to
complete the work until February.
A vote was expected on Thursday, state
media reported.
The BBC's Jon Leyne, in Cairo, says issuing
a constitution in these circumstances would be a deeply inflammatory move.
Opposition figure and former Arab League
chief Amr Moussa told Reuters news agency: "This is nonsensical and one of
the steps that shouldn't be taken, given the background of anger and resentment
to the current constitutional assembly."
'Sacred mission'
The constituent assembly is dominated by
the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists, who back Mr Mursi.
Liberal, left-wing and Christian members
have boycotted the body, accusing the Islamists of trying to impose their
vision.
22 November declaration
• Reopen investigations
into killings of protesters; retrials of those accused
• No appeals against
constitutional decrees made since Mursi came to power
• President to appoint the
public prosecutor (must be aged at least 40)
• Constituent assembly to
get two months extra to draft new constitution
• No judicial authority
can dissolve the constituent assembly or the upper house of parliament (Shura
Council)
• President authorised to
take any measures to preserve the revolution or safeguard national security
Its latest move appeared to be aimed at
dodging a ruling by the constitutional court on Sunday on whether the assembly
should be dissolved.
The constitutional court's deputy chairman,
Maher Sami, said in a televised speech that the ruling would go ahead.
"The court is determined to rise above
its pain and continue its sacred mission until the end, wherever that takes
us," he said.
The court has already dissolved the lower
house of Egypt's parliament, which was led by the Muslim Brotherhood.
The declaration that sparked protests gave
Mr Mursi powers to take any measures to protect the revolution, and stated that
no court could overturn his decisions.
It is valid until a new constitution is in
place.
Critics accuse Mr Mursi of trying to seize
absolute powers.
Supporters say the decrees were needed to
protect the gains of the revolution against a judiciary with deep ties to
overthrown President Hosni Mubarak.
On Monday, Mr Mursi sought to defuse the
crisis by telling senior judges that the decrees would be restricted to
"sovereign matters" designed to protect institutions.
But judges who attended the meeting said
they were not satisfied and wanted the measure completely withdrawn.
On Wednesday, judges called a strike,
saying appeals courts and the court of cassation would halt work until the
decree was revoked.
The president was expected to make a
televised address to the nation about the decree late on Thursday.
There have been running protests since the
decree was issued, often spilling over into violent clashes between protesters
and riot police.
The Muslim Brotherhood and the more radical
al-Nour party have called for a counter-protest in Cairo on Saturday.
If approved by the constituent assembly,
the draft constitution would then be put to a national referendum.
No comments:
Post a Comment