CAIRO: Egypt in its tough transition phase towards democracy needs to look at other countries that underwent a similar transition in a comparative perspective, but without copying those transitions that occurred under different circumstances, a conference concluded.
The conference titled “Democratic Transition Challenges: Egypt in a Comparative Perspective,” the Arab Forum for Alternatives (AFA) in collaboration with the European Union Institute for Security Studies (EUISS), posed a comparative analysis of the democratic transition by providing examples from Spain, Portugal, and India, in addition to examining other issues of concern in the Egyptian arena.
One of the main issues discussed in the conference was the constitution that has been a topic of fierce debate in Egypt.
Hisham El-Bastawisy, former chairman of Appeals Court and presidential hopeful, confirmed that the transition period lacks the consensus between the ruling military junta and the political forces, in addition to being under economic and security threats.
“The referendum results showed a will to elect the parliament that will form a constituent assembly to draft the constitution which is technically and constitutionally wrong,” said El-Bastawisy.
“But this is the people’s choice, so what we can push for now is that the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) has to put some guarantees of choosing the constituent assembly in the sense that it does not reflect the parliamentary majority.”
It is feared that the possibility that the Islamists led by “Freedom and Justice Party” of the Muslim Brotherhood group will have an overwhelming parliamentary majority will pose the threat of pushing for a religious state while drafting the constitution.
Director of Department of Law in Zagazig University Mohamed Nour Farahat called for another referendum to ask Egyptians whether they want the constitution first, blaming the religious publicity during the last referendum of deceiving Egyptians to push for the interests of Islamists.
“I trust that Egyptians, after knowing the truth, will choose the constitution first, but if they declined, then I propose to amend some measures to guarantee that the constituent assembly does not reflect the parliamentary majority,” Farahat said.
The constitutional debate in Portugal was different since a military coup led the democratic transition in the 1970s, unlike Egypt where a grassroots revolution gave the torch to the military to lead the transition.
“The former constitution was revoked and all institutions were dissolved and a law was announced to elect a constituent assembly after a coup took place to bring democratic reform on the right path until the first draft of the constitution was completed in 1982,” said Pedro Bacelar de Vasconcelos, director of the Human Rights Research Center of the University of Minho Law School in Portugal.
The Indian experience in forming the constitution in the late 1940s was unique in accommodating diversity through citizenship in a country that consisted of thousands of ethnic and religious minorities.
“A constituent assembly was elected by a wide cross sectional representation of all faiths to conduct complete social representation above all party affiliations,” said Rahda Khomar, director of Peace and Conflict Program in Delhi Policy Center.
“The nature of the state to be parliamentary or presidential was not the core debate, but rather the fundamental right and the directive principles to have a new India by certain policies,” she added.
Organizing free and fair elections was another key issue of concern in the transition period where reflections over the electoral law and laws governing political parties and civil society showed that a serious national dialogue is needed to get a national consensus of what is important in this stage in Egypt.
“Although the new electoral law amended by the SCAF was generally better than the ones amended before by the former regime, questions regarding the vote of Egyptians abroad and whether to use the individual vote or the party list were not clearly tackled by the amendments to provide a clear path towards the next elections,” said founder of Al-Adl Party and parliamentary candidate Ahmed Shoukry.
Executive Director of AFA Mohamed El-Agati confirmed that while the political parties law also amended by the SCAF is better than the previous one, it still needs to be further revisited.
“The new law gives the judicial committee 30 days to investigate the party which means that the party is going to be licensed the same way it was before,” he confirmed.
The legal challenges posed in the electoral and political parties law overshadowed the discussion on the challenges of forming new political parties. Founder of the Egypt Freedom Party Amr Hamzawi described the problem of political parties as “only articulating the demands of the public that are being voiced in Tahrir Square,” without having the right power to mobilize the public.
Director of Al-Gomhuriya Institute for Security Studies Sameh Saif ElYazal recommended the introduction of graduates of law school to join police forces in addition to using new technology to decrease the over-dependence on human resources in police forces.
The integration of Islamists in the democratic process was another major concern posed by Egyptians recently where fears of the growth of political Islam would put the civil state in danger.
“We should not fear the argument between Islamism and secularism, but rather we should fear that such a fierce fight would lead to chaos that could only be controlled by military intervention,” said Amr El-Chobaki, president of AFA.
