Jerry Lewis doppelgänger Amr Moussa... who was head of the Arab League for approximately two normal lifespans, accomplishing nothing that was obvious to the casual observer ...
, chairman of the 50-member committee mandated with finalising Egypt's new constitution, disclosed that the final draft of the country's post-30 June charter will be complete by the end of November.
"After this, we will pass it to Interim President Adly Mansour to be put to a national referendum," Moussa said.
In the words of Moussa, "The new constitution will be modern, reflecting the requirements of the 21st century, not to mention that it will be completely different from the 2012 Constitution."
"This constitution will be new," Moussa added, "in the sense that it will be aimed to serve the interests of all Egyptians, rather than the 2012 Constitution that was tailored to serve the interests of the [deposed] Moslem Brüderbund."
According to Moussa, the current debate over the constitution has highlighted many differences, particularly over articles regulating the performance of the armed forces. "In this respect," said Moussa, "let me emphasise that we are by no means under any pressure from the army to draft articles in a certain way." "Let me also stress that we show a lot of respect for army officials and their viewpoints," said Moussa.
Moussa indicated that there is also a lot of controversy over whether women would be given a quota of 30 per cent of seats in the coming parliament and whether the traditional quota of 50 per cent of seats reserved for farmers and workers will be maintained.
Moussa confirmed that the vast majority of the 50-member committee are in favour of imposing an outright ban on political parties formed on a religious foundation or background. "The majority is against forming religious parties, be they Islamist or Christian," Moussa said.
Reviewing the progress of the 50-member committee in a plenary session Wednesday, Abdel-Gelil Mostafa, chairman of a subcommittee responsible for reviewing the language of the constitution's articles, disclosed that 150 articles have been reviewed, 30 of which are new.
"Most of these articles belong to the first two chapters covering the state, and rights and freedoms," said Mostafa, indicating that "the articles of the chapter on the system of government will be complete Thursday."
At the end of that stage, explained Mostafa, "We will have an initial draft constitution before the holiday of Eid Al-Adha next week, after which we will move to the second stage, which is designed to include a dialogue with members of subcommittees to reach an agreement on articles after they were reviewed by the constitution writing committee."
"Finally, we will a have a third final stage in which there will be a final draft ready for discussion in plenary sessions of the Committee of the 50."