Egypt’s eight-member committee charged with drafting constitutional amendments has announced their proposals. Originally tasked with modifying six provisions, they instead called for eight amendments. [An excellent discussion of the issues at stake, featuring our contributor Tamir Moustafa, can be found here. and his analysis of the amendments is here.]
As reported in the press, the proposals include: (1) modification of Article 75 to guarantee that Egypt’s president cannot be married to a non-Egyptian; (2) a change to Article 76 to ease restrictions on presidential nominations, including allowing public nominations by 30,000 citizens; (3)a new limit of two presidential terms of four years each in Article 77 (Mubarak served five terms of six years); (4) an amendment to Article 88 to allow full judicial oversight of elections during the entire electoral process, essentially reversing a 2007 amendment; (5) an amendment to Article 89 to provide for a new constitution after the next election; (6) an introduction in Article 93 of the Constitutional Court as the body responsible for determining the validity of parliamentary membership, replacing the self-dealing of parliament that had sustained Mubarak’s regime; (7) an amendment to Article 139 to require the president to appoint a Vice President within the first two months of coming to office; a revision to Article 148, pertaining to the State of Emergency, requiring a public referendum for emergencies of over six months; and (8) the abolition of Article 179 on terrorism.