6 April Youth Movement called for protests on the second anniversary of the 2011 Revolution rejecting the draft constitution, which is set to be passed once the official results of the referendum are announced.
Ahmed Maher, the group’s coordinator, said the call to protest came as an initiative between the Movement and several other parties and groups. The announcement was made during a press conference held on Tuesday.
Khaled Dawoud, the spokesperson for the National Salvation Front (NSF), the nation’s largest opposition bloc, said he currently has no comment regarding 6 April’s call to protest, but the Front will be meeting tomorrow to discuss it.
NSF has repeatedly called for postponing the referendum until a new, more consensual constitution is drafted.
Maher, who is one of the founders of 6 April, said the draft constitution does not represent the people and called for changing the referendum law from a simple majority victory to two thirds.
He said the constitution must be rectified by forming coalitions to win the People’s Assembly elections, set to be held after the constitution is passed.
NSF does not form a single coalition for all its parties, said Maher, but it should form a maximum of two, to compete with the Muslim Brotherhood and salafist coalition.
He denounced privileges which the military gained under the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood, claiming that the military did not even get these privileges during the transitional phase when it ruled the country.
These privileges include the military’s to try civilians before military courts if they commit crimes that harm the army, as stated under Article 198 of the draft constitution.
Maher added that the Muslim Brotherhood insisted on passing the draft constitution by campaigning outside polling stations and allowing Freedom and Justice Party observers to go inside polling stations. “This is nonsense and is not even worth a response,” commented Mahmoud Ghozlan, a spokesperson of the Muslim Brotherhood.
During the press conference, Mahmoud Afifi, the media spokesperson of 6 April, said the referendum was not transparent.
Afifi added that the Freedom and Justice Party made the same mistake that the National Democratic Party committed by assaulting the Movement’s members and political activists monitoring the referendum.
Mohamed Adel, a spokesperson for 6 April, said, “Members of the Muslim Brotherhood assaulted our members in Al-Waraq, Al-Haram, Kafr Al-Sheikh, and Beheira. Complaints have been made.” He added that all of the attacks took place in the second phase of the referendum, which was held last Saturday.
The Freedom and Justice Party could not be reached for comment.
Afifi called on the Supreme Electoral Committee to investigate all reported violations, before announcing the official results of the referendum. NSF has listed over 700 violations in the second phase of the referendum.
