October 4, 2011
SACRED HONOR:
In Egypt, Concessions by Military on Politics (DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK, 10/02/11, NY Times)In the weekend agreement's most concrete concession, the military rulers appeared to reverse themselves on foreign election monitors. Military officers had said over the summer that they would be barred as an intrusion on Egyptian sovereignty.
Several people who have talked to military officials said that the officers objected to election "monitors" because they believed the word denoted supervision or control, but that "observers" from nongovernment organizations would be welcome.
The most far-reaching part of the weekend agreement may be the guiding principles it sets down for drafting the Constitution, a political flashpoint here.
Liberals have proposed a binding preconstitutional bill of rights to prevent a potential Islamist majority from limiting individual freedom in the name of religious morality. Islamists, including the Muslim Brotherhood, object to that idea as undemocratic. Others, meanwhile, say they worry that the military will build in a role for itself as a guarantor of a secular state.
The weekend agreement appears to prevent the military from setting ground rules unilaterally or defining its own role. It provides for "agreement on a set of principles to be adopted by all the signatory parties when drafting the new Constitution," and adds, "Those principles are to be considered an informal code of ethics endorsed by the parties."
Mustafa al-Naggar, one of the political leaders involved in the weekend meeting, called the principles "a bill of honor" and said in a note on his Facebook page that "everyone will commit to abide by it after the elections, during the choice of the Constitution-drafting committee and the drafting of the Constitution."
The agreement provides for two-thirds of the seats in Parliament to be filled by party lists through proportional representation, and one-third by individual candidates elected in head-to-head races. Candidates on party lists could run individually as well.
Posted by oj at October 4, 2011 6:53 AM
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