Egypt's June 17th Constitutional Declaration

At around 20:15 on 20/6/12 I have now read, compared, contrasted and considered the Constitutional Declaration of June 17th 2011 (17/6/12) which can be read in Arabic here; http://www.ahram.org.eg/-/News/155958.aspx with the original Constitutional Declaration of March 30th 2011 (30/3/12) which can be read in Arabic here; http://www.almasryalyoum.com/node/380474

However I used the English translations that can be read here; http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/45350/Egypt/Politics-/URGENT-English-text-of-SCAF-amended-Constitutional.aspx and here;
http://www.cabinet.gov.eg/AboutEgypt/ConstitutionalDeclaration_e.pdf

The first change is Article 30 which simply adds the phrase; "In situation that Parliament is dissolved the President will be sworn into office in front of the High Constitutional Court's General Assembly." This has simply been done to allow the newly-elected President to be sworn in despite the fact that the Peoples Assembly has been dissolved.

Article 38 has been completely re-written replacing the wording: "The law shall govern candidacy for the Peoples Assembly and the Shoura Council according to the determined electoral system including at a minimum the participation of women in both assemblies." with the wording; "The Parliamentary elections will be conducted in accordance with the law." This new wording has been designed to make it more difficult for the Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC) to overturn future election results by removing the provision that allows for candidate to be banned and use of quotas. It does though give the SCC the power to regulate future elections in accordance with a law that has yet to be written.

Articles 53, 53/1, 53/2 simply seek to clarify the vague wording in the original declaration which declare the Armed Forces to be "the property of the people." It clearly defines that the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) and the Office of the President as a separate entities. Both of these bodies will have to agree for Egypt to declare war or for the military to intervene in internal unrest. It also prevents the President from putting pressure on the armed forces to agree on these issues by removing the President's right to appoint or dismiss military leaders. This is a perfectly normal safeguard for a democratic country to have in order to prevent it being turned into a dictatorship. For example in the USA the military swear an oath to uphold the constitution so if a President gives an unconstitutional order the military can simply refuse to carry it out. Also the new wording removes the ban on paramilitary groups which the Muslim Brotherhood originally objected to so violently and mandatory conscription into the military. However I think these two things are as a result of the amendment being written in a hurry rather then something more intentional.

Article 56B merely gives the SCAF the powers listed in Article 56 until the election of a new Peoples Assembly. This is simply to allow someone to run the country until a government is elected. It also isn't strictly speaking necessary because the March 30th declaration actually gives SCAF those powers whether a government is in place or not. So the addition of the amendment actually reduces the SCAF's power by insisting that it must make way for a properly elected government.

Article 60B simply adds a provision allowing the SCAF to appoint a committee to write the new constitution if the Peoples Assembly and the Shoura Council fail to do so within the six months mentioned in the original document. As the Peoples Assembly and Shoura Council have failed to appoint this committee within the six month time limit someone has to do it because Egypt can't carry on in this transition phase indefinitely. The article still gives the people the right to reject the constitution written by the SCAF appointed committee at referendum if they do not approve of it.

Article 60B1 adds the opportunity for the President, the Prime Minister, the SCAF, the Judiciary or 1/5th of the committee to object to any constitutional clause they believe to conflict with the values of the revolution or long held pre-Mubarak Egyptian values. This is important because at a referendum people will only be able to vote yes or no to the entire constitution which can lead to an otherwise perfectly good constitution being rejected due to just one or two bad clauses or one or two bad clauses being included because voters don't want to reject all the other clauses. The article includes a provision for any disputes to be ruled on by the Higher Constitutional Court which allows for the oversight needed to prevent the objection process being abused.

So in conclusion I do not see the June 17th constitutional declaration to be any sort of power grab by SCAF. Instead it's a necessary adjustment to allow the military to pick up the slack caused by the failure of Egypt's inexperienced politicians.