25 constituent assembly members threaten withdrawal

A number of 25 members of Egypt’s constituent assembly have threatened on Wednesday to withdraw in objection to preventing secular members of the assembly from speaking and proposing different wording for crucial provisions in the final document as well as the monopolization of the assembly for a particular segment. Among the members threatening to withdraw are former presidential candidate Amr Moussa, liberal Wafd Party leader, Sayed Badawi, Ghad Al-Thawra Party leader, Ayman Nour, Former MP, George Nagy Messiha, State-run MENA news agency reported. The members decided not to further have a role at the constitution-drafting body until their demands are met. They decided to submit these demands to President Mohammad Morsi. The demands include the cancellation of the results of the previous two meetings where the assembly finalized the first section of the proposed constitution, removing the members who have exceeded the allowed number of absences and approving amendments that were agreed upon but have not been included in the draft constitution. They also called for the assembly to get a three-month deadline to complete the constitution instead of the two-week deadline which earlier triggered third of the assembly members, on November 8th, to threaten to resign, arguing that it was insufficient time. The current assembly is reportedly considered as non-representative to draft the constitution as the majority, 60%, are Islamists. Constitutional articles need to be approved by a 67% majority. However failing to achieve this percentage, a second round of voting with a 57% majority is enough.