New Egyptian Constitution Frees Military from Civilian Oversight
Gives military final say on defense minister
Egypt's new draft constitution, approved by a 50-member assembly on Sunday night, will enshrine the freedom of the army from civilian oversight and give the military the final say over who is defence minister, as well as watering down many of the religious provisions in an earlier and now-obsolete version drafted by an Islamist-dominated panel.
The Muslim Brotherhood, the party of ousted president Mohamed Morsi, immediately rejected the draft constitution, calling it a "black document" made in the "dark shadows" and tailored to enhance the interests of a "junta". The constitution will now be handed over to Adli Mansour, the interim president, on Tuesday for the formality of signing.
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post comments
Nothing says democracy like a military independent from civilian control with say over who it reports to.