"The Constitutional amendments that were approved by the People's Assembly and Shura Council are considered a positive step on the road of political reform,"said Minister of Legal Affairs and Parliamentary Council Mofeed Shehab said on Sunday25/3/2007in an interview granted to MENA Editor-in-Chief Abdallah Hassan.

Shehab further said that "these amendments really reflected our political, economic and social life and filled a gap that existed between some of the constitutional articles".

With these amendments, Egypt is stepping into a new stage of democratic building because it is opening its doors to more deepened democratic practices and wider effective participation of parties in political life, he added.

Shehab said the amendments, proposed by President Hosni Mubarak, achieved their political goal in entrenching the sovereignty of the people as a source of legislation.

They also set out a framework for national unity by reiterating the importance of the citizenship principle to abort others' attempts to forment sedition, he said.

The amendments also will strike a balance between the legislative and executive authorities, Shehab said.

About Article 88 of the Constitution on the judicial supervision of elections, he said this amendment aims at facing the growing numbers of voters that require a similar increase of constituencies and polling stations and this makes it very difficult to provide the necessary number of jurists to supervise elections.

However, this does not at all mean eliminating the judicial supervision, Shehab said, but on the contrary aims at activating this supervision.

Regardless of the content of the proposed amendments, political life has witnessed over the past three months an active dialogue that involved the various political and intellectual trends and that aimed at serving the higher interests of the State.

The Minister said the disagreement in viewpoints that was clearly demonstrated during the People's Assembly and Shura Council sessions is an embodiment of the current democratic development.

He called on all Egyptians to head for the balloting stations on Monday to cast their votes and take part in the decision-making process and not to respond to calls by some people to boycott the referendum.

"Should we call on people not to express their opinions concerning issues of imprudence to their lives or should we call them to express their viewpoints no matter what they were", he asked.

All Egyptians must take part in shaping a better future of their country, Shehab said.