Ikhwanweb :: The Muslim Brotherhood Official English Website

Ali Fateh Al-Bab, President of the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) parliamentary bloc in the Egyptian Shura Council, confirmed that parliament will elect, next Saturday, the 100-member committee which will draw up the constitution, noting that they are determined to reflect in this Assembly the wonderful diversity with which the Egyptian people are blessed throughout the homeland.

Fateh Al-Bab explained that the Constituent Assembly (CA) that will draft the new Charter is subject to Article 60 of the Constitutional Declaration. He added that some lawmakers demanded all CA members should be from within the Houses of Parliament (People's Assembly and Shura Council), while some felt that all CA members should be from outside of the two Chambers. Eventually, Parliament decided to reconcile opposing views by selecting half of the 100 members from parliament and the other half from outside.

The President of the FJP parliamentary bloc also said that the crisis surrounding the lawsuit brought by some political parties to halt the formation of the CA shows that there are still some people in Egypt who believe in democracy in a purely theoretical sense, using it in sound bites, words and logos only; but when the time comes for implementation, they reject it completely. Ultimately, Fateh Al-Bab pointed out, democracy means that when a party has the majority in parliament, that majority gives it certain authority which enables it to take decisive actions. Meanwhile, there are people who believe democracy means forbidding and preventing Islamists from taking any positions of power.

Moreover, Fateh Al-Bab said, "The people have spoken in very recent, free and fair elections, which resulted in this Parliament. Before casting their ballots to empower this parliament, voters – the Egyptian people – knew that it will have the power and authority to form the Constituent Assembly entrusted with the drafting of the new constitution.

"The Constitutional Declaration does not impose any restriction or condition on such authority given to the two Houses of Parliament; and therefore Parliament has the right to set terms and conditions that it deems valid and beneficial", Ali Fateh Al-Bab added.