At a symposium held by the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies on Sunday, secular groups argued with the Muslim Brotherhood as to whether Egypt's new constitution should be written before the upcoming parliamentary elections.
“Writing the constitution first is against the will of the majority of the people,” said Ahmed Abu Baraka, co-founder of the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, referring to the recently held referendum on certain constitutional amendments.
He also said that parliamentary elections must be held in order to restore order to the Egyptian street.
Abu Baraka accused Prime Minister Essam Sharaf of issuing short-term decisions that would not be useful in the future. “He did not make pivotal decisions regarding security, education, health and finance,” he said. “That is why we need a parliament to devise proper laws and regulations first.”
Democratic Front Party member Wael Nawara disagreed with Abu Baraka. “The referendum was on amendments to a constitution that was repealed by default when the regime was toppled,” he said. “Egypt of today needs a whole new constitution to make it a modern state.”
Nawara warned that holding the parliamentary elections would restore remnants of former President Hosni Mubarak’s regime to power.
“The Brotherhood made a deal with the government to get the majority of seats in parliament and thus influence the committee that would be tasked with preparing the constitution,” he said.
Translated from the Arabic Edition
