Egypt’s Constitutional Amendments 2019 : Too Fast but too quiet in the Media

I am back in town and I can’t believe how to speed the Egyptian House of Representatives is moving when it comes to the upcoming constitutional amendments.
I am trying to catch up what has been happening so fast in the past week.

On Tuesday, the Parliament’s general committee approved the proposed Constitutional amendments presented by one-fifth of the MPs on Sunday.

The amendments if passed by the House of Representatives then approved by the majority of eligible voters in a referendum will not only enable the president to stay in power for another two decades but also enable him to have more control over judiciary as well as enable the army to interfere in the political life constitutionally.

The Egyptian parliament 

I believe any constitutional amendments will take more time for discussions in any parliament’s general committee in the world on any planet in any solar system but we are speaking about Egypt’s current House of Representatives.

Now the House of Representatives will have a final vote on 17 February 2018 and if approved by 2/3 of the MPs then there will be a referendum within 60 days.

The parliament’s biggest bloc “Support Egypt” supports the amendments along with pro-regime parties like “Future of Homeland Party” and “Free Egyptians Party”
Again things are moving fast to the level that I can’t comprehend naively considering we are speaking about alarming constitution amendments.

In the Parliament, 25-30 Bloc is still insisting on its position to reject the Constitutional amendments and I guess some of its prominent members may not stay long in the parliament as I explain later in the post.

Interestingly, the Conservatives Party seems to have a split over the amendments as its leader declared his rejection to the amendments whereas its MPs and other leading figures in the party declared their support.
Needless to say, State-owned media newspapers like Rosa al-Youssef began to attack the Conservatives Party leader Akmal Kartam.
The opposition’s Civil Democratic Movement declared its official rejection to the amendments launching a “Union to defend the constitution”
The centrist and leftist leaning parties declared the launch of that movement as well as their rejection to the amendment in a statement on Wednesday quietly with no proper media coverage.

This is not a political opposition battle against President El-Sisi’s regime as some imagine and the media promotes for to deceive us all. This battle is the battle of every Egyptian citizens. It has ideological goals or aims or personal gains or interest of a certain political powers. It is the battle of being a true state or not to be.

The movement told the Egyptians in its statement to stand together and to say “No to shifting the country’s path to the unknown”, “No to support autocracy and confiscating the citizens’ rights in choice” and “ No to the assault on State’s institutions”.

The Constitution Party, “Karama Party”, “Egyptian Social Democratic Party”, “Bread and Liberty Party”, “The Reform and Development Party”, “The popular socialist alliance party”, “Masr Al-Horreya Party” are among the parties taking part in this movement.

On the other side, at least 45 pro-regime parties declared their support and endorsement to the constitutional amendments including truly less-known to unknown parties.
You do not have to guess which news is being covered in the mainstream media.

Speaking about the mainstream and its focus nowadays only about MP Khaled Youssef and his so-called sex scandal. Do you remember when I told you earlier that Youssef, who opposes the constitutional amendments hinted out that he would pay a so-called price for his “political stances”?
Well, he is involved in an alleged sex scandal that is a mix of #Metoo, hacking, sex tapes and he is out of town too in Paris.
Updated: Some lawyer reported opposition MP Haitham El-Harriri to the prosecution too for allegedly sexually harassing some woman thanks to an alleged audio recording that went viral online.
Youssef and El-Hariri are the prominent 25-30 Bloc I have referred to earlier.

If both are officially accused or convicted, they may lose their seats in the parliament.

A possible scenario that without even being referred to the prosecution, they can be referred to a disciplinary committee in the parliament and lose their seats eventually before 15 February seriously speaking if we take in consideration what happened to MP Anwar Sadat JR.

The Constitutional amendments are also overshadowed by the on-going fight between Al-Ahly SC and the Zamalek- Turki Al-Sheikh’s Pyramids alliance.
All the trends on Twitter are about football related issues in Egypt.
Bottom-line there is no proper mainstream media coverage for those amendments despite their importance and their danger.

I am trying to gather more reactions, mostly opposing reactions from public figures and so far the usual suspects of 25 January revolution prominent figures are leading the online rejection movement.

Now so far there is complete silence from the presidency.

Old videos of Abdel Fattah El-Sisi have resurfaced showing him speaking in praise of the constitution 2014 and how he did not have any intention to stay more than two presidential terms and handing over the presidency to a young president in the age of Emmanuel Macron.

In that video from a public meeting on 19 January 2018, El-Sisi criticized the old constitution “I assume Constitution 1971” for giving the president too much power.
That interview with CNBC that was aired in November 2017 is also shared virally where he said that he would not stay in power more than what was mentioned in the 2014 constitution. “Two terms”
I believe that there is a slight possibility that El-Sisi may come up in the next public event and declare his rejection to the amendments and we will find the parliament removing some of them.