The Shura Council on Tuesday approved constitutional amendments proposed by President Hosni Mubarak last year.

The voting result was 229 in favor, four against and four abstentions. Shura Council Speaker Safwat el-Sherif on Tuesday said the Shura Council's approval, earlier in the day, of constitutional amendments was meant to support liberties. In a speech he delivered after a Shura Council session at which the approval was secured, Sherif noted that the council's stance was also aimed at backing democracy and political pluralism in Egypt.

The council, he added, is also seeking to entrench the value of citizenship as a source of rights under which all citizens are treated on equal footing regardless of their religion or race.