Egypt to finish draft constitution

CAIRO - Secretary General of Egypt's Constitutional Assembly Amr Darrag said Wednesday that discussions over the draft constitution are expected to be finished later this day.

A voting inside the assembly on the final draft will follow the procedure, and the approved version will be referred to President Mohamed Morsi, official MENA news agency quoted a statement from Darrag as saying.

Darrag said the necessary quorum for the final voting on the constitution is attained.

He mentioned that the only solution to get out of Egypt's current crisis is to finalize the new charter as soon as possible, even if the consensus is much lower than expected.

For his part, Hossam al-Gharyani, head of the constitution-drafting body, renewed calls on those who had withdrawn from the assembly to return.

Several liberal, nationalist and leftist party representatives have withdrawn from the assembly, complaining of unbalanced representation.

In a session of the constitutional assembly held Wednesday, Gharyani said the withdrawers made contribution through the past months to writing the articles of the draft, adding that he maintains contact with them in several ways, through which he was informed that some were forced to withdraw under escalating pressure from the parties and groups they belong to.

So far, Egypt has formed two assemblies for the constitution. The first one was elected by the People's Assembly in March. The current one was formed on June 12.

Large-scale demonstrations blazed recently across the unrest-marked country, rejecting the new constitutional declaration issued by Morsi on Thursday.

Protesters flee during clashes with police near Tahrir Square in Cairo Nov 28, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

The new constitutional declaration ruled that all laws, decrees and constitutional declarations issued by the president since June 30, 2012, when he assumed office, are final and unchallengeable by anybody.

Titling the president's decisions as "revolutionary", presidency spokesman Yasser Ali said that no judicial body is entitled to dissolve the Shura Council (upper house) or the constituent assembly.