The Peterborough Examiner

Egypt starts revision

- MAGGIE FICK and NOAH BROWNING

CAIRO — A panel of legal experts started work on Sunday to revise Egypt’s Islamist-tinged constituti­on, a vital first step on the road to fresh elections ordered by the army following its removal of Mohamed Mursi as president.

Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhoo­d, which has accused the army of orchestrat­ing a military coup and denounced plans to revise the constituti­on, staged fresh rallies on Sunday to maintain pressure on the new, interim government.

Setting a highly ambitious timeframe, the military wants new elections in around six months and has tasked a panel of 10 legal experts to present proposed changes to the constituti­on within 30 days for review before a broader-based body.

The original constituti­on was approved by a referendum last year, but critics said the text failed to protect human rights, minorities and social justice.

Ali Awad Saleh, a judge and the constituti­onal affairs adviser for the newly installed president, chaired Sunday’s panel, saying it would spend the next week receiving ideas from “citizens, political parties and all sides.”

Khaled Dawoud, a spokesman for the opposition umbrella National Salvation Front, called the start of the committee’s work “a very positive developmen­t.”

The Muslim Brotherhoo­d has shown no sign it is ready to engage with the new administra­tion or the army, sticking firmly to its demand for the full restoratio­n of Mursi, who has been held in an undisclose­d location since his downfall on July 3.

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