Panel begins voting on Egypt draft constitution

A panel in Egypt tasked with amending the country’s suspended constitution began voting Saturday on hundreds of changes to it, the first step in an effort authorities say will move the country toward democratic rule after a July military coup that ousted its president.

The 50-member committee started voting electronically on each of the 247 articles, most of them changes to existing portions of the constitution, while some represent new additions to it. The process, aired on state television unlike previous sessions held behind closed doors, is expected to last two days.

The panel will hand in the draft to interim President Adly Mansour, who has a month to call for a public vote on it. That’s the first step in a military-backed transition plan after the July 3 popularly backed coup that ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.

The committee is changing Egypt’s December 2012 constitution, drafted largely by Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood and its Islamist allies.

In this series, reported 18 findings of misconduct or other inappropriate behavior among the 82 death-penalty cases that underwent direct review by the Arizona Supreme Court from 2002 to the present. Further review indicates the high court made 16 such findings, which represent nearly 40 percent of the cases in which misconduct or other inappropriate behavior was alleged.