22.12.2013 - 10:49 [ Le Monde ]

Egypt’s constitutional midnight

Egypt heads to its constitutional midnight moment without its draft constitution being the supreme law of the land. After the 2012 constitution under the deposed President Mohamed Morsi was suspended, a 50-member panel entrusted with drafting the new document approved it on 1 December. A simple majority referendum has been put forward for 14 and 15 January. After a hasty two months of drafting, neither the military, legislature, judiciary, nor the president are bound by the constitution. And yet Amr Moussa, chairman of the outgoing 50-member drafting committee and a long time foreign minister and secretary-general of the Arab League, has predicted the referendum would pass with a 70 percent “yes” vote.