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Egypt’s junta, political forces break deadlock on constitution

08 June 2012 01:21 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Egypt’s military rulers and political powers Thursday hammered out an agreement on rules for forming a constitutional assembly, ending a deadlock of more than a month, APA reports.

"An agreement has been reached between the (ruling) Supreme Council of the Armed Forces and political powers on criteria for forming the Constituent Assembly and the voting mechanism in drafting the new constitution," said the head of the liberal Al Wafd Party, Al-Sayed al-Badwai, following a seven-hour meeting in Cairo.

An Egyptian court in April annulled a similar commission dominated by Islamists after several members withdrew from it to protest what they called an unbalanced composition.

Islamist parties, who control the parliament, agreed at the meeting to reduce their representation level in the new assembly to allow other groups to be included in the 100-member panel, local media reported close sources as saying.

"The Constituent Assembly will be made up of representatives from political parties, legal experts, religious institutions, professional unions, public figures, the youth, women and Christians (minority)," al-Badawi said.

Egypt’s military ruler Hussein Tantawi has called on the parliament to meet on Tuesday to select the new panel, added al-Badawi.

The agreement comes less than two weeks before a presidential run-off vote in which an Islamist and an ex-military general are to vie for Egypt’s top job.

Egypt’s new constitution will determine the powers of the president and the future of the military.