Archive for Egyptian society

Constituent Assembly calls for dialogue with opposition figures

by admin
December 18th, 2012

The Constituent Assembly has invited four leading opposition figures to discuss the controversial draft constitution in an open session on Friday at 2:30 pm, hours before the second round of voting begins in the constitutional referendum on Saturday.

Constitution Party head Mohamed ElBaradei, Popular current leader Hamdeen Sabbahi, Wafd Party leader Al-Sayed al-Badawy and Conference Party head Amr Moussa were each invited to voice their opinions on the draft.

“As the Constituent Assembly is keen on relaying to the Egyptian people all different views and perspectives in complete transparency for them to decide what they deem best for the country, it invites you and the leaders of the national forces to present the objections to the draft constitution in a public dialogue,” the invitation said.

The meeting is scheduled to take place at the Shura Council.

The opposition has criticized the draft constitution for failing to preserve basic freedoms, promote social justice or inclusively represent Egyptian society. They argue it was authored by an Islamist-dominated body that does not reflect the diversity and the needs of the Egyptian people.

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm

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Churches encourage followers to vote in referendum

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December 13th, 2012

Egyptian churches declared on Thursday that they would participate in the constitutional referendum scheduled for Saturday.

Church representatives had withdrawn from the Constituent Assembly in November in protest against articles that it said contradicted Egypt’s heritage and violated the rights and freedoms that Muslims and Christians have both fought for through the ages. At the time, they said that there was no consensus over the draft constitution and that the document does not reflect the pluralism of Egyptian society.

“Every citizen has the freedom to vote,” said Pope Tawadros II, while Reverend Andre Zaki, the deputy head of the Anglican Communion in Egypt, told the state-run Middle East News Agency that the church encourages its followers to vote and would not attempt to influence their decision.

Meanwhile, liberal opposition forces urge voters to vote against the new constitution, while Islamist forces have been mobilizing in its favor.

Edited translation from MENA

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Stock market loses LE10.4 billion Thursday

by admin
December 6th, 2012

The violent clashes in front of the presidential palace Wednesday night affected the stock market negatively on Thursday.

The main index EGX30, which tracks the performance of the top 30 companies, went down by 4.6 percent, losing 233 points to reach 4,838 points, with sales values at LE402.4 million.

The stock exchange halted the trading of 61 companies for half an hour after they passed the allowable percentage decline, which is 5 percent.

The trading screens were covered in red.

The market capitalization lost LE10.4 billion after the close prices of 137 securities went down, while only seven securities went up.

Mohsen Adel, deputy head of the Egyptian Society for the Study of Finance and Investment, said the clashes outside the presidential palace urged investors, particularly foreigners, to liquidate parts of their portfolios out of fear the situation would deteriorate.

Mahmoud Abdel Rahman, investment director at Premiere Company, said foreign institutions went for sale transactions. He expected that the market would continue to be affected by the ongoing political turmoil.

Abdel Rahman said that many securities’ companies asked the exchange to suspend work, worrying that the unrest could push the stock market to collapse.

The recorded transactions of Arab and foreign investors reached LE21.7 million and LE8.5 million respectively on Thursday, while the purchases of Egyptians were worth about LE30.3 million.

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm

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Morsy meets with political leaders, assures civil state

by admin
June 28th, 2012

President-elect Mohamed Morsy met on Thursday with the heads of Egyptian political parties in what he said was an effort to establish a wide popular base that would be the foundation of his administration.  

He stressed that Egypt remains a civil state and that his government would be based on the Azhar Document, which states that Egypt is a modern, democratic, civil, constitutional state and that the nation is the source of authority.

Yasser Ali, the acting spokesperson for the president-elect, said that Morsy has expressed the desire not to use the terms “collision” or “treason.” People may hold different opinions without there being clashes or mistrust, he said.

“The impasse that the country has been stuck in for too long is about to be over,” Ali quoted the president-elect as saying.

Ali said that many of the party leaders stressed the need to respect human rights, which Morsy promised to do. Morsy also said he would quickly form a coalition government that is representative of all Egyptian society in order to reassure that all Egyptians are equal.

Ghad al-Thawra Party head Ayman Nour said after the meeting that Egypt has not witnessed such an attempt at reconciliation since the assassination of Anwar Sadat.

Nour added that Morsy stressed more than once that Egypt will remain a civil state and emphasized his respect for artistic freedom.

According to Nour, there was a near consensus among meeting participants that the elected president’s authorities shall not be diminished and that tradition divisions, such as “Islamist” or “liberal” shall be rejected.

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm

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Trade Union Federation rejects new Constituent Assembly formation

by admin
June 11th, 2012

The Egyptian Trade Union Federation has announced its rejection of the recently approved criteria for the Constituent Assembly that would draft the new constitution.

In a statement released Monday, the ETUF expressed anger at what it called Islamist domination over the formation of the assembly.

Islamists, particularly the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party and the Salafi Nour Party, gained the right to form 50 percent of the assembly according to an agreement approved by some political forces on Thursday.

“The number of members of any trade union outnumbers those who belong to the political parties who have members in the assembly. Therefore, it is not right for more than 22 unions to have only seven members. Seven syndicates have been selected to have representation, including five that are headed by Muslim Brotherhood members,” the ETUF statement said.

The Muslim Brotherhood is heavily represented on the boards of the Engineers, Teachers, Doctors and Pharmacists Syndicates and provided support to the Journalist Syndicate in the last election.

“The Constituent Assembly does not represent the whole of Egyptian society but rather only one faction that will form the majority of the assembly in order to control the constitution-drafting process,” the statement added.

The ETUF said that its only option is to resort to the judiciary as long as Islamist domination over Egyptian political life continues.

A court ruling had previously disbanded the original Constituent Assembly, saying it was not representative of Egyptian society because it was dominated by Islamists, which had caused secular members to withdraw in protest. After recent negotiations between a number of parties, political forces and the ruling military council agreed that Islamists would be granted 50 percent of the assembly’s seats.

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm

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ElBaradei says elected president should form constituent assembly

by admin
May 5th, 2012

Prominent reformer Mohamed ElBaradei, one of the founders of the newly-formed Constitution Party, has suggested that the elected president should put together a constituent assembly that is representative of the whole of Egyptian society.

ElBaradei wrote on his Twitter, “In the absence of a constitution, electing a president, whose powers will be determined by the military in a Constitutional Declaration that has not been approved by the people, and protecting his election from legal challenges, will not get us out of [the crisis] we are in.”

ElBaradei, who is also the former chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said the way out of this crisis is to elect a president who will form a consensual committee to write the constitution. This should be followed by parliamentary and presidential elections.

Presidential elections are scheduled to be held on 23 and 24 May. Meanwhile, Parliament members have yet to agree on criteria for electing members of a constituent assembly.
 

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FJP official: All society’s sectors represented in constituent assembly

by admin
April 2nd, 2012

All sectors and minorities in Egyptian society are represented in the constituent assembly which will write the new constitution, said Ahmed Fahmy, Shura Council Speaker and member of the Freedom and Justice Party.

Fahmy’s remarks came during a meeting on Monday with an American congressional delegation headed by David Dreier, a member of the US House of Representatives from California, which was attended by US Ambassador Anne Patterson.

When asked about the rumors concerning the withdrawal of some constituent assembly members, Fahmy said he only received withdrawal requests from two or three members. He went onto say that the demands made by some parties for representation in the assembly equal to that of the majority party are undemocratic.

A number of assembly members representing liberals, in addition to representatives of the Supreme Constitutional Court, Al-Azhar and the Coptic Church had withdrawn from the 100-member assembly. The Islamist-majority Parliament formed the assembly, which is dominated by Islamists.

The withdrawing members expressed their opposition to the makeup of the assembly, which they said did not take into account all segments of Egyptian society.

Concerning Egyptian-American relations, Fahmy said they must be based on justice not power, as the manifestations of power are different and variable.

He added that many Egyptians had reservations regarding American aid if it is accompanied by pressure on Egyptian government policies. He said he hoped for a genuinely reciprocal economic partnership.

Meanwhile, Dreier expressed his appreciation for the changes that have taken place in Egypt as well as the Egyptian people's ability to bring about these changes. Dreier welcomed the role of the new Parliament, which represents all segments of society, stressing the importance that it not be allowed to fall under presidential or executive authority control.

Dreier went on to say he hoped for more parliamentary cooperation between the two countries and that exchange will strengthen democracy and human rights. He said that the United States believes that partnership with Egypt in all fields is a strategic partnership.

Translated from Al-Masry Al-Youm

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Forty political powers to protest ‘monopolization’ of constituent assembly

by admin
March 5th, 2012

Some 40 political powers, coalitions and parties refused the “monopolization of certain political powers” in Parliament to choose the members of the constituent assembly, referring to the fact that Parliament is controlled by Islamists.

In a statement released on Monday, the groups dubbed Parliament’s representation in the assembly as “playing with fire.” A member of the National Association for Change, Takadun el-Khatib, said that representatives from the political powers that signed the statement will hand Parliament Speaker Mohammed Saad al-Katatny a copy of the statement and relay their views regarding the assembly.

Among the groups that signed the statement are the National Association for Change, the Socialist Party of Egypt, the Egyptian Social Democratic Party, the Communist Party of Egypt, the Revolution Youth Coalition, the April 6 Youth Movement and the Ghad al-Thawra Party.

A number of leftist and socialist groups said it is necessary to place standards and principles on the constituent assembly, including that single trend cannot control the assembly.

Socialist Popular Alliance Party leader Abdel Ghafour Shoukr said that the first standard is that the 100-member assembly contains 20 members of Parliament and 80 members from all aspects of Egyptian society elected from popular bodies like trade unions, chambers of commerce and industry. It should also include constitutional law professors, thinkers, the handicapped and Muslim and Christian men of religion.

Egypt needs a modern constitution establishing a state with a democratic regime that ensures the freedom of its citizens according to international covenants and that derives its power from the people through free and periodic elections, Shoukr told Al-Masry Al-Youm.

A statement from the Socialist Party of Egypt said that the assembly formation ensures drafting a constitution that achieves all the aspirations of the Egyptian people and should prevent a certain trend from imposing its political will.

The statement also warned that the Islamists may attempt to control the constituent assembly through nominating representatives who are part of Islamist movements, which would produce a constitution that is not representative of wider Egyptian society.

Translated from Al-Masry Al-Youm
 

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Society formed to monitor Egyptian media for ethical violations

by admin
February 28th, 2012

A number of media activists founded the Spectator, Reader and Listener Protection Society to monitor Egyptian media for violations of the journalistic code of ethics.

The founders of the society said in a press conference at the Journalists Syndicate on Tuesday that the society’s main role is to monitor media for technical, legislative and moral violations.

The temporary head of the society, Hassan Mohamed Ali, said that the main targets of the society are talk shows and newspapers. The society intends to prepare a monthly report cataloguing violations and also bring lawsuits against blatant violators.

The monthly report would contain a “blacklist” of media outlets who commit excessive violations.

The society will also seek to raise the bar of performance among media professionals.

One of the founding members, Adel Refaat, said the society plans to monitor newspapers, movies and video clips for violations against the traditions and values of Egyptian society.

Refaat said that court cases will include documents and evidence proving violations against Egyptian values.

Translated from Al-Masry Al-Youm

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