"President Hosni Mubarak's proposed constitutional amendments are a turning point in Egypt's political and constitutional life," said the National Democratic Party (NDP).

In a statement on Wednesday, the NDP said that the proposed amendments would herald a new phase in the political development in Egypt and consolidate the country's democratic process.

President Mubarak's request to amend a number of Constitutional articles has ushered in a new phase in the political reform in Egypt, the statement said.

The proposed amendments aim to promote parliament authority, strike a balance between the executive and legislative authorities, strengthen the parties, consolidate independence of the judiciary and promote citizenship in Egypt, it noted.

The statement said that the amendment acquires special significance for two reasons: -The amendments are the biggest since the issuance of the Constitution in 1971.

-The amendments are a new stage in the political reform process. The NDP said the proposed constitutional amendments aim at achieving the following:

I -Consolidate the right of citizenship as all citizens have equal rights and duties.

II- Promote the role of parliament by granting it the authority to conduct a vote of confidence on the government platform in order to guarantee that the new government would have the confidence of the People's Assembly.

Under the amendments, the People's Assembly would have the right to withdraw confidence from the government.

The parliament will also have the right to amend the State Budget and define its priorities.

III -Strengthen the role of the parties.

IV -Develop the election supervision system. The move aims to hold the elections in one day in order to avoid extending the period of the ballot for long days, according to the statement.

V -The amendments also aim to expand authorities of the cabinet and put regulations on the authorities of the President of the Republic, according to the NDP statement.

VI- Consolidate the independence of the Judiciary.

VII- Combat terrorism and provide security for citizens.

VIII -Match between the constitutional text and the current political and economic conditions.

The NDP statement noted that the proposed amendments would herald a new phase in the development of the Egyptian political and constitutional system.

NDP vision of Constitutional reforms

(Based on NDP's Document on Citizenship & Democracy)

The initiative launched by President Hosni Mubarak in 2005 of amending Article 76 of the 1971 Constitution whereby the President of Egypt would be elected by secret direct ballot represents a link in a long chain of reforms yet to be introduced, which seek to achieve development in the political, economic and social fields. The initiative also marks a qualitative shift in the process of modernizing the country's political regime.

Constitutional reforms have occupied top priority in President Mubarak's electoral platform. His manifesto seeks to place a set of checks and balances to avoid the overlap of authorities, uphold citizens' rights and public liberties; enrich party life and improve the status of the municipalities.

Constitutional reforms, therefore, will achieve the following:

• Restructuring the relations between the Legislative and Executive powers for greater balance and for a stronger Parliament role with respect to government monitoring and accountability.

• Boosting Cabinet role and competences and broadening the scope of the government's participation with the President in the tasks of the Executive.

• Placing checks and balances on the President's powers as defined in the Constitution in cases of threats to national security and/or obstacles impeding State institutions with regard to performing their Constitutional role. • Adopting the parliamentary electoral system will most guarantee the opportunity for the best political party representation.

• By means of election, ensuring a minimum number of seats for women in parliament.

• Developing the local councils by boosting their executive and monitoring role and enhancing decentralization.

• Drafting a new law on terrorism to replace the Emergency Law.

• Ensuring the independence of the Judiciary by abolishing the Supreme Council for Judicial Authorities, the position of the Socialist Prosecutor and the Court of Values.

• Ensuring compatibility between the articles of the Constitution and the contemporary economic conditions; by committing to the country's new economic course, promoting social justice and free economy, guaranteeing the right to ownership in all its forms and protecting workers' rights.

Both the National Democratic Party and the government believe that these goals are achievable within the framework of the current Constitution, which outlines a political regime based on the separation of powers, and which guarantees freedom of faith, expression and vote, and protects human rights. The Constitution also ensures multi-partisanship, the right to establishing trade union and associations, and freedom of the press and the media.

The NDP also maintains that the Constitutional reforms mentioned by President Mubarak in his electoral platform do not aim at embracing an entirely parliamentary system of government, but rather at espousing a blend of the parliamentary and presidential systems. The Egyptian Constitution stands in the middle between the two systems. Legitimacy depends on the political will as manifested through public ballot in both presidential and parliamentary elections.

At the opening session of the People's Assembly and Shura Council in December 2005, President Mubarak called for polling MPs over the reforms proposed in his electoral platform using the means most suitable for each council.

A report on the results was forwarded to the President. The NDP submitted a number of ideas which can be summed up in the following:

Restructuring the relationship between the Legislative and the Executive powers for greater balance11:05 AM 1/9/2007 and for a stronger Parliament role with respect to government monitoring and accountability The NDP has submitted a number of proposals to that end:

• To have the prime minister's accountability to Parliament so adjusted as for the latter to be able to withdraw confidence from the government without holding a referendum.

• To establish Parliament's right to introducing changes to the general budget, within a set of given controls maintaining a sense of overall balance to the draft budget; the timing for budget review and for the final statement may also be changed to provide enough time for careful study by the people's representatives.

• The Shura Council should be granted the right to making laws, with respect to Constitutional amendments, and to legislations supplement thereto.

Boosting cabinet role and competences and broadening the scope of the government's participation with the President in the tasks of the Executive:

Under Article 138 of the Constitution, "The President of the Republic in conjunction with the government shall lay down the general policy of the State and supervise its implementation in the manner prescribed in the Constitution."

Article 132 also stipulates that "the President of the Republic shall give a statement of the general policy of the State. He shall also give other statements before the Assembly.

The Assembly is entitled to discuss the statement of the President of the Republic." The NDP proposes broadening the scope of the Cabinet's authorities regarding a number of matters before submitting them for review by the President. These include Law-enactment statutes, and decisions instituting and organizing public facilities.

Placing checks and balances on the President's powers as defined in Article 74 of the Constitution in case of threats to national security and/or obstacles impeding state institutions with regard to performing their Constitutional role: The NDP proposes the following:

• In case of danger threatening national unity or the country’s safety and/or of obstacles encumbering the Constitutional role of State institutions, the NDP proposes that the President should, after consulting with the Prime Minister and the Speakers of both the People's Assembly and Shura Council, take urgent measures, which would enable State authorities to carry out their Constitutional role.

Adopting the parliamentary electoral system most guaranteeing the opportunity of best political party representation:

Several changes have been introduced to Egypt's parliamentary electoral system since 1866, when the absolute majority single-winner system was applied. In 1983, the system was replaced with proportional representation, whereby to enter Parliament a Party should win 8 per cent of the vote.

In 1984, the system was declared unconstitutional, on the grounds that it restricted candidacy to party members. In 1986, law No. 188 was promulgated which created a mix between absolute majority and proportional representation, allowing independents to run for seats alongside party members.

The absolute majority single-winner system was applied in the parliamentary elections of 1990, 1995, 2000 and 2005.

The NDP proposes several Constitutional amendments with a view to selecting the electoral system most guaranteeing the opportunity of best political party representation in Parliament.

•Ensuring a minimum number of seats for women in parliament:

Law No 41 for 1979 was promulgated assigning a minimum of 30 seats to women in the Egyptian Parliament. Law No. 114 for 1983 raised the figure to 31. In 1986, however, Law No. 188 ruled out women-allotted seats as unconstitutional.

The Party believes it necessary that women be adequately represented in parliamentary councils and seeks to achieve this by introducing the necessary Constitutional and legislative amendments.

Developing the local councils by boosting their executive and monitoring role and enhancing decentralization:

Both the NDP and the government believe it necessary to develop the Local Administration system by enhancing its executive and monitoring powers, the fact being that they are the closest to the pulse of the public and the most understanding of its needs and demands. The system is also the apparatus best applying democracy at the local level.

The NDP and the government strive to develop the system by introducing the Constitutional and legislative amendments likely to enhance the authorities of local community councils as well as ensuring decentralization.

Drafting a new law on terrorism to replace the Emergency Law: With terrorism still being a threat to Egypt, President Hosni Mubarak, in his electoral manifesto, has made a commitment to promulgate a law on terrorism to replace the Emergency Law.

To that end, the government has been entrusted with forming a committee to draft a new law, which includes the membership of a number of experts in the fields.

The committee has reached the following conclusions:

• The law on terrorism shall not echo the rulings of the Emergency Law, nor shall its text be a re-writing of their content.

• It is essential that the law strikes a balance between the rights and duties of individuals, on the one hand, and the means to eliminating terrorism, and to rooting out all means of funding it.

Promulgating the new law does by no means, however, indicate abolishing the Emergency Law. It rather implies an end to the state of emergency. The case is that most countries have applied anti-terror laws alongside emergency laws, which are used only in times of crisis.

The independence of the Judiciary should be ensured by abolishing the Supreme Council for Judicial Authorities, the position of the Socialist Prosecutor and the Court of Values.

Compatibility between the articles of the Constitution and contemporary economic conditions should be ensured; through committing to the country's new economic course, promoting social justice and free economy, guaranteeing the right to ownership in all its forms and protecting workers' rights

On 7 November, 2006, Al-Wafd, Tagamo’ and Nasserist parties issued a statement after their meeting concerning their vision on the constitutional amendments and election system.

This vision clearly shows that these parties unanimously agree on not prejudicing articles of chapter three of the constitution concerning public freedoms, rights and duties, abolishing Article 74 that gives the president the right to take exceptional procedures to face dangers that threaten national unity, and the necessity to maintain Article 88 as well as the judicial supervision on the elections.

Concerning Article 76, the parties call for amending it so as to make the conditions for presidency elections a guarantee for seriousness not a restriction on nomination. They also call for returning to the text of Article 77 before the amendments of the year 1980 so as to restrict renomination of the President to only one time.

As for Article 89, they call for amending it to oblige members of Parliament who are State civil servants to be completely devoted to the Parliament so as to separate authorities.

They asserted the amendment of Article 93. The decision on the membership of the People’s Assembly should be confined to Court of Cassation or the Supreme Administrative Court. Besides, they recommend the amendment of Article 115 so as to give the People’s Assembly the right to amend the State’s budget and article 127 so as not to condition the implementation of the People’s Assembly resolution to withdraw the trust of the cabinet by the agreement of the President or the public referendum.

In addition to merging Articles 137 and 138 in one text so that the president of the republic would be responsible, in participation with the Cabinet, to assign the tasks of the executive authority. In addition to amending Article 147, which commits the president of the republic, after the approval of the Cabinet, to take the opinion of the two offices of the People’s Assembly and the Shura Consultative Council before undertaking measures that could not be delayed and with more competence to the Shura Council.

He also demanded amending Article 148 that commits the president of the republic, after the approval of the Cabinet, to present the matter to the Shura Council upon declaring the state of emergency, in a period that does not exceed six months, and it may be extended to a similar period upon the approval of the People’s Assembly, besides amending Article 194 so that the Shura Council would be granted definite legislative competences.

Finally, I asked the parties to cancel Article 173 to annul the Supreme Council for judicial Authorities and cancel Article 39 to annul the Prosecutor General, thus realizing the unity of judiciary and affecting the principle of the traditional authority.

I also demanded the three parties to add an article that permits positive distinction in favor of women and introduces a new text that permits applying the unconditional relative list system as an electoral system.

The three parties undertake unified stances from some articles as follows: 1- Articles from 40 to 63 (Chapter Three of the Constitution) The three parties believe in the un-infringement of the articles in Chapter Three concerning public freedoms, rights and duties, which are the articles from 40 to 63.

2- Article 74

3 – Article 76

The three parties view the necessity of amending such article ,so that conditions of recommendation for the republic presidency guarantee its seriousness.

4- Article 77

The three parties view the necessity to return to the text of the article in before being amended in 1980, so that the re-election of the president is only once.

5-Article 88

The necessity of maintaining the article 77, and rejecting any attempt to abolish judicial supervision on the elections.

6- Article 89

It should be amended, and all the members of the people’s assembly including employees in public and private sector, must comply to it , without any exceptions ,to assure the separation of powers.

7- Article 93

The judiciary (supreme administrative court, court of cassation) should solely decide on the validity of the People’s Assembly membership, and the head of People’s Assembly should refer the appeals to the court and it assumes the final judgment during a fixed period, since the date in which the appeals were referred to it.

8- Article 115

It should be amended, so that the People’s Assembly is given the right to amend the state’s public budget project, if it resulted in increase of public expenditures, the council should find its financing resources.

9- Article 127

It should be amended so that the people’s assembly resolution of withdrawing the trust from the Cabinet won’t be suspended on the president approval or a referendum

10- Article 137, 138

The two articles 137, 138 should be merged in one text, so that the president of the republic, in participation with the Cabinet, assumes the executive power.

11- Article 147

This amendment is intended to oblige the president, after the approval of the Council of Ministers, to take the opinion of the offices of the People’s Assembly and the Shura Council jointly, in case of the absence of the councils, before adopting any measures that cannot be delayed.

12- Article 148

This amendment is intended to oblige the president, after the approval of the Council of Ministers to submit the matter to the Shura Council in case the People’s Assembly is dissolved once after declaring the emergency case in a period that does not exceed six months. This period may be extended to other six months upon the approval of the People’s Assembly.

13- Article 173

This amendment is intended to annul the Supreme Council for Judicial Authorities so as to assert the principle of the independence of judiciary.

14- Article 179

This amendment is intended to annul the Socialist Prosecutor General so as to realize the unity of judicature and the principle of the traditional judge. 15- Article 194 This amendment is intended to provide defined legislative competencies for the Shura Council.

16- The three parties request to add an article that allows the positive distinction of women to ensure their effective participation that suits her status in the political work.

17-The three parties request to produce a new text that allows the application of the system of the unconditional relative list as an electoral system.

The constitutional amendments proposed by President Mubarak are the major ones in the history of Egypt. Hence,they should improve the balance between the Three Powers an order to limit the control of the Executive over the Legislative and the Judicial. This is plus giving the prime minister a greater role in participation with the president in the making of the country's decisions; besides taking the decisions necessary in case of a grave danger which requires a quick intervention on the part of the president, let alone confirming the prime minister's right to choose his deputies and ministers.

The new amendments should empower the Legislative, as represented in the People's Assembly (PA) and the Shura Council, with additional rights by increasing the PA supervision over the government in order to achieve the balance between its powers and that of the Executive. According to the proposed amendments, the PA would have the right for the first time to withdraw confidence from the government. The PA has also the right to amend the general budget of the State without condition of the agreement of the government besides rejecting the statement of the government or requesting its amendment. The Shura Council would be given a legislative competency to limit the control of the Executive over the other powers. This is plus annulling the Socialist Public Prosecution Body and the Court of Values to promote the Judicial and the respect of human rights which stipulate that the citizen is to be judged only before his natural judge.

The FSCP believes that the essence of the democratic system is holding free and fair elections. This is to go in line with selection the best electoral system which ensures the fairness of elections and the right of the people to express their political will, choose their representatives and change the government in light of the principle of the rotation of power.

Given that the one-day elections cannot take place under the full supervision of the judiciary, it is necessary to seek an alternative electoral system which provides for an independent and impartial supervision on the parliamentary elections. The solution may lie in establishing a permanent national body to supervise the parliamentary and the presidential elections.

This is plus giving the would-be body the competencies necessary for following up and implementing its decisions regarding the electoral process. The would-be body should have an independent budget and police which enjoys judicial arrest competency in order to follow up the electoral crimes and arrest their perpetrators.

The proposed amendments constitute a chance that should not be missed in order to help re-coin the philosophy of the rule for the re-establishment of the up-to-date civil state. This is plus specifying its identity, namely a democratic country whose legitimacy emanates from the people and the votes of electors. This is to maintain the public freedoms, civil rights, social and political rights of the citizens under no discrimination because of religion, creed, color, sex in the context of a fair law, independent judiciary and free press.

One of the bases of building the civil state is to maintain the right of citizenship for all citizens without discrimination and to safguard the public freedoms for all. This is to coin a constitution, serving as a socio-political document to regulate the relation between the State and the citizens and maintain the right of citizenship. This is plus ensuring the multi-party political system and the rotation of power via free and fair elections under the supervision of the elected parliament and the free press as well as the independent civil society institutions. The proposed constitutional amendments should place us on the right track toward the comprehensive development. The new amendments should participate in establishing the up-to-date State based on pluralism, societal dialogue and the rotation of power. Hence, the FSCP calls for the necessity not to specify an economic system for the State in the constitution so that the texts of the constitution would go in line with the contemporary economic condition.

The constitution should, however, allow for the lawmaker to choose the electoral system realizing the best democratic representation. This is to help enable women and Copts to have the appropriate representation in the parliament. The FSCP has some reservations over keeping the ratio of representation of workers and farmersin the Parliament . This is plus maintaining the notion of the social justice even after annulling the Socialist Public Prosecutor and reconsidering the performance of the Political Affairs Committee.

The FSCP sees that the articles of 76, 77 and 88 are the core of the constitutional and political reform. Concerning Article 76, the party sees that it should be re-amended so that the conditions for running for the presidency can ensure the seriousness of the nomination and not to be restrictive. This is plus restoring the text of Article 77 of the constitution before its amendment in 1980 so that the President of the Pepublic can re-run for only one more term. The FSCP calls for keeping Article 88 of the constitution and rejects any attempt to annul the judicial supervision over the elections but within the proposal of the permanent national elections body which may comprise the judges of the Supreme courts.

The party also sees that adopting the unconditioned relative slate system is so necessary in the coming phase. This is to enrich the political practice, boost the partisan pluralism and end the absence of wide sectors of the citizens in the electoral and the political participation.