Members of a controversial panel tasked with drafting Egypt’s new constitution on Wednesday elected Muslim Brotherhood member Saad al-Katatni — currently the speaker of parliament– to head the committee.
The appointment comes following a series of withdrawals from the constituent assembly by liberal, leftist and independent figures who accuse Islamists of monopolizing the process that will deliver the post-revolution charter.
Writing the constitution requires “wisdom and political responsibility, away from partisan gains,” Katatni told the constituent assembly tasked with drafting the new constitution, in a session aired live on television.
His election comes hours after Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional court announced it was withdrawing its representative, Ali Awad Saleh, from the constituent assembly, casting further doubt over its legitimacy.
Since the formation of the 100-member constituent assembly on Sunday, nearly two dozen high profile figures have pulled out, while a court is set to rule on the panel’s validity on April 10.
Liberals who have quit assembly in protest at its make-up were among those who signed a statement that pledged to write an alternative constitution to the one being drafted by the official body, which was formed at the weekend.
“We shall undertake this duty from outside the official assembly in collaboration with all the segments of society and experts that should have been included from the beginning,” said the statement, released at a news conference where one speaker after another accused the Islamists of seeking to dominate.
The Islamists secured a major say in the constitutional assembly’s composition thanks to their strong position in parliament, where the Muslim Brotherhood and the more hard-line Nour Party won some 70 percent of seats in recent elections.
Liberals, leftists and others say the poll result should not decide the make-up of a body that will write a constitution meant to last far longer than a parliamentary term. Women, young people and minority Christians are under-represented, they say.
“The political Islamic current has given itself the right to monopolize the writing of the constitution, excluding the other factions of Egyptian society,” Ahmed Said, head of the liberal Free Egyptians Party, said at the meeting.
Mostafa El Gendy, a liberal and a member of the Revolution Continues group, told Reuters: “The constitution is for all Egyptians, to be participated in by all Egyptians.”
The Muslim Brotherhood disputes accusations that Islamists dominate the Constitutional Assembly, saying it contains 48 Islamists, 36 from parliament and 12 from outside. Their opponents say a score of other members have Islamist leanings.
The Brotherhood, founded in 1928, has said the criticism amounts to an attempt by the minority to impose its will on an elected majority. “Thirty million people elected those MPs. How come they shouldn’t be part of the assembly?” asked Abdel Khaleq al-Sherif, a member of the Brotherhood’s advisory council.
Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, head of the military council ruling Egypt since Mubarak was toppled, met politicians on Tuesday to try to resolve the crisis, an army official said.
A Cairo court convened on Tuesday to hear legal complaints filed by Egyptians over the formation of the constitutional assembly, and about 150 protesters gathered outside.
“We didn’t die so the Brotherhood could write the constitution,” read one of their banners.
Hafez Abou Saeda, head of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, who was among the crowd, said: “It (the assembly) poses great danger because it means two parties with Islamist orientations will divide amongst themselves the constitution, meaning they can restrict rights and freedoms.
Some members of the Brotherhood and the Nour Party have also criticized the way the assembly was formed.
“I call on the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafi Nour Party, to which I am honored to belong, to open the door to communication and dialogue,” said Yasser Salah El-Kadi, an Islamist MP who attended Tuesday’s news conference.
