labor representatives

The Freedom and Justice Party’s parliamentary bloc on Saturday endorsed the criteria formulated in a meeting between the ruling military council and political parties regarding the formation of the Constituent Assembly.

‘“The FJP would be represented by 15 members in the assembly” according to the proposal, said bloc member Hatem Abdel Azim. “Other political parties are free to choose representatives from within or outside Parliament.”

Abdel Azim explained that the new criteria are positive steps, as it has been agreed that the criteria for forming the Constituent Assembly will be laid out in a law. This would allow Parliament to retain the right to formulate an appropriate law, and take jurisdiction away from an administrative court, he added.

“The party is still contemplating the members it will nominate for the assembly,” he said.

Wahid Abdel Meguid, coordinator of the FJP-led Democratic Alliance and a member of the mediation committee to resolve the crisis over the Constituent Assembly, said the joint session of the People’s Assembly and Shura Council to elect the assembly members would be determined once all political parties announce their position on the formation criteria recommendations.

He added that certain issues have still not been resolved, such as one, raised at the meeting, that all 18 parties represented in Parliament should also be represented in the assembly. The first time the Constituent Assembly was formed, it was decided that only 11 parties would be included to allow for more representation from outside the political sphere.

In a meeting with political parties on Saturday, the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces said that the constitution should be crafted before the presidential election runoff.

The meeting also decided that four members of the assembly would include four Al-Azhar representatives, six Egyptian church representatives, 10 legal and constitutional scholars, two farmers’ representatives and two labor representatives, as well as general representatives for women, student movements and those with special needs.

Mohamed Morsy, the FJP’s presidential candidate and president of the party, did not attend the meeting.

The new agreement on the assembly’s formation comes on the heels of a previous fiasco, when the State Council’s Administrative Court ruled a mostly Islamist and MP-dominated Constituent Assembly dissolved earlier this month.

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm

Tags: labor representatives, constituent assembly, State Council’s Administrative Court, political parties, Freedom and Justice Party, Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, Hatem Abdel Azim

The Supreme Council of Armed forces said on Saturday that the process of writing the constitution should finish before the run-offs of the presidential elections, and specified the numbers of non-Parliament members that will participate in writing it.

During the meeting, SCAF and political leaders also agreed on forming a committee comprised of representatives from the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, the Salafi Nour Party, the Wafd Party, the revolutionary Block Party and Tomorrow Revolution Party and other independent politicians that will follow-up with the Constituent Assembly's decisions.

In six points, published on the state-run Al-Ahram website, SCAF also announced how the Constiuent Assembly, which will draft the country's new constitution, will re-vote if they do not reach a consensus on the first time.

The military council said that during the meeting with representatives from 20 political parties and some Parliament members, all parties had agreed on ratios of representation that comply with the Administrative Court’s ruling on the representative ratios from the Parliament and Shura Council.

In reference to the constituent members that will represent political bodies and other organizations, according to the SCAF announcment there will be four from Al-Azhar, six from Egyptian Churches, including Orthodox, Catholic and Evangelical. There will also be ten legal or constitutional scholars in the assembly, two farmer representatives, two labor representatives, in addition to general representatives for the interests of women, students, and those with special needs.

In the case that the constituent assembly cannot reach a consensus of two-thirds of the assembly (67 members) in voting on the new constiution, then the assembly will re-convene within 24 hours to vote, with a lowered consensus of 57 percent.

According to the points, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi will call a joint session of the Shura Council and People’s Assembly to elect the members of the assembly.

Ayman Nour, the leader of the Revolution Tomorrow Party, confirmed that the decisions had been made concerning the members from outside the Parliament, and said that each party has the right to choose its representatives on the committee from within or outside the Parliament.

The country's Constituent Assembly, which last met in early April, has been gridlocked after various political parties withdrew from its formation, saying it was unfairly dominated by Islamist political groups.

Edited translation from Al-Ahram and Al-Masry Al-Youm

Tags: Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, Wafd Party, Constiuent Assembly, constituent assembly, Shura Council and People’s Assembly, Salafi Nour Party, political parties

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