Egypt’s opposition parties launch reform campaign

1/11/2005 2:00:00 PM GMT

An Egyptian democracy party, backed by opposition groups and human rights organizations, launched a campaign on Monday to change the country’s constitution and allow a multi-candidate presidential elections.

The head of the Committee for the Defense of Democracy, Hussein Abdel-Raziq, said that the party’s drafted document demands the cancellation of nine items from the current constitution and the amendments of 23 others.

According to Abdel-Raziq, the new changes aim at easing Egypt’s state of emergency and narrowing the president’s authorities, including limiting his presidential term from six years to five.

"Seven candidates took part in [Palestinian Authority] elections under 38 years of [Israeli] occupation; The Egyptian citizen is no less capable of choosing a president among several candidates, but the rulers know that they will lose in any free election," said Abdel-Raziq, who is also the chief of the left-wing opposition Tagammu Party.

He also said that the amendments are expected to be discussed by political factions, civil society groups, members of parliament and the public after the members of the Tagammu Party distribute the document among the public in two weeks.

"The amendment cannot be achieved without the support of organized powers and great pressure from the public," he told a press conference.

"Even if we are not able to win before the presidential nomination, the initiative remains for future attempts."

Egypt’s President Mohammad Hosni Mubarak, 76, who assumed office in 1981, didn’t say whether he will seek another term after the current one ends in October.

But ruling party officials said that the parliament will nominate Mubarak for a fifth term in May and that they will hold a referendum in September.

Currently, Egyptians elect a president by voting “yes” or “no” in a referendum for one candidate.

The candidate is selected by parliament, which has been dominated by the National Democratic Party and its predecessor since parties were legalized in the Seventies.

A similar campaign was launched last week by feminist writer Nawal Al-Saadawi, sociologist Saad Eddin Ibrahim and former opposition parliament member Mohammed Farid Hassanein, who demanded Egyptians to sign a petition for constitutional reform.

Last month, some 1,000 Egyptians staged a protest against Mubarak and the possibility that his son might succeed him. The demonstrators stood in silence outside the Supreme Court in Cairo. Many covered their mouths with yellow stickers reading "Enough".