The Salemy’s Document 2011

While the elections are approaching, a heated ongoing debate is taking place on another attempt to issue a new document for Supra Constitutional Principles came to light last week by the Deputy Prime Minister, Dr. Ali Elselmy.
The Salemy’s Document addressed rights and freedoms and also granted the Military a prominent position in the new constitution; Articles 9 and 10 put the Military as the sole guarantor of the constitutional legitimacy in the country, its budget shall be confidential and not to be discussed in the Parliament. Moreover, the Document attempted to lay criteria for choosing the 100 members of the Constitutional Assembly, 80% of them will be chosen and only 20% left to the Parliament to. After concerns rose by political factions, on 14 November, Dr. Elselmy deleted from Article 9 and 10 that the Army is the sole guarantor of the constitution and its budget will be reviewed by the National Security Council chaired by the president.
On Sunday 13 November, the Democratic Coalition for Egypt met in the premises of the freedom and justice party to discuss the document and issued a statement agreeing to abide by the Al Azhar document, confirming that the Constitutional Assembly should encompass all factions in the community and that issues of the Military that concerns the national security should be taken into consideration while drafting the new constitution. Commenting on this Statement, Mr. Abu ElEla Mady, the Chief of ElWasat Party, that shared in drafting the Statement, stated that the Coalition agreed with most of the articles of the Document, except for articles 9 and 10. He ensured, “the Armed Forces, as part of the executive branch of the State has to abide by the Constitution and the law and its budget has to be discussed by the Parliament in confidential meetings as is the case democratic systems.”
Mr. Shahir George, Member of Egypt Freedom Party who is running in the upcoming elections as part of the Coalition of the Revolution Continues, stated, “we are against granting the Military immunity or granting it rights in choosing the members of the Constitutional Assembly. The amendment to review the military budget by the National Security Council is a good step, yet the target should be its revision by the Parliament. The timing of the Document is bad due to the proximity to the elections.” He confirmed, “we support a consensus guidelines Document with the approval of the Egyptian people in a referendum. Parliament members should choose the members of the Assembly whether from among them or outside. but we are against any imposition of certain members by SCAF.” Dr. Dina Shehata, Senior Researcher at Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies stressed that the problem lied in the process. Dr. Elselmy prepared Constitutional Principles in the absence of any dialogue with political factions in a manner of “take it or leave it”. Furthermore, Dr. Shehata said, “it is not foreseen that the new constitution will come out without granting the military immunities, but it comes up as a compromise not enforced by the Government.” Also, Dr. Samer Soliman, Founding Member of the Egyptian Democratic Social Party, agreed that there process is the problem. He said, “the party refuses any a political role for the Military. We are against any military or religious state and contrary to the Islamite factions, we believe that drafting the constitution should not be left to the faction with the majority in the parliament.” He added, “we can agree to a consensus document that guarantees the political rights and democracy, with guarantees that all will abide by it.” He confirmed, “the amendments are steps in the right direction towards our goals. Islamite factions predict that they will gain the majority in the parliament and they want to dominate writing the new constitution. They endorsed the Azhar document because of its general nature.”
Commenting on the whole difference, Professor Ezzedine Fishere of AUC said “liberals want a document to serve as a guarantee to respect democracy and freedoms. This is the most important factor for them because it helps alleviate their worries from the Islamite factions. On the contrary, Islamite factions don’t want to give any concessions hoping that they will win the majority so they’ve more space to maneuver. In fact, Islamite factions agreed to join forces with other political factions in opposing the expansion of the role of the military isolate SCAF and the Government predicting that this fight may kill the document. However, if the liberals agreed to the document then the Islamite factions will be left alone. By all means, this document is not the right place to discuss the role of the Military, SCAF is still in power and we have ample time to discuss this issue at length.”