Tag: left

From the Associated Press:

Egypt’s opposition group to urge boycott of referendum on constitutional changes
By NADIA ABOU EL-MAGD
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) _ Egypt’s leading opposition movement, the Muslim Brotherhood, decided Wednesday to urge its supporters to boycott a nationwide vote next week on constitutional amendments, the group’s deputy leader said.
The banned Brotherhood has decried the amendments as limiting freedoms, excluding it from becoming a legitimate political party and perpetuating Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s grip on power.
“We decided to boycott the referendum,” Mohammed Habib, the Brotherhood’s deputy leader, told The Associated Press after a meeting of key leaders of the movement.
The Brotherhood is Egypt’s strongest Islamic opposition group. Its lawmakers hold parliament seats as independents because the movement is officially banned since 1954. It is, however, tolerated within strict limits and suffers regular police crackdowns. Following the 2005 elections, the group currently has 88 parliament members.
The boycott decision came a day after Mubarak set March 26 as the date for a referendum on constitutional reforms, more than a week before it was expected.
The 34 amendments were approved Monday in the 454-seat parliament, where deputies from Mubarak’s governing bloc hold more than two thirds of the seats.
Mubarak has billed the amendments as part of a reform package aimed at increasing democracy in the country which he has ruled unchallenged for a quarter century. It would be the first major change in the constitution since 1971.
But the amendments, among other things, would prohibit the Brotherhood from ever becoming an official political party and also would bar it from running any candidates as independents, effectively keeping it from fielding candidates in any manner.
One of the amendments specifically bans the creation of political parties based on religious denomination _ a direct hit on the Brotherhood. Another requires presidential candidates to come from a recognized political party holding at least 3 percent of the seats in parliament, ensuring that an independent cannot run.
The amendments also would enshrine tough security laws that opposition groups say will lead to police and judicial abuses.
The authorities intensified their latest campaign against the Brotherhood after student members of the group staged a militia-style demonstration at the Al-Azhar University in Cairo in December, stoking government fears the group was forming a military wing. The group denied this, saying the new campaign is a reaction to their opposition to the amendments.
About 350 of their members have been in jail since then, 40 of them, who are leading figures, will stand military trial.
The amendments come at a time when the United States has reduced public pressure on its key Arab ally to allow more democracy in Egypt, focusing more on getting Cairo’s support for resolving Mideast crises than pushing its ally on political reforms.
But in what was the United States’ most outspoken criticism of Egypt in months, U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in Washington on Tuesday that Washington has “some concerns about some of the amendments that have been proposed.”
McCormack said the measures should be viewed in light of what the Egyptian “government said it intended to do in terms of lifting the state of emergency, the powers of the police and the ability of individuals within the political system to freely organize themselves in political parties, as well as to freely express themselves in the political space.”
Meanwhile, Egypt’s Interior Minister Habib el-Adly said Wednesday the referendum was a major step in reforms and pledged the police would ensure it passes in order.
The security will be “up to the level required by the referendum since it is a historic step in the process of reforms,” el-Adly said in comments carried by the official MENA news agency.

As far as I understand, the Nasserist Party, Ghad and Al-Wafd will be boycotting too. The Tagammu Party hasn’t made its mind yet, though it’s likely they’ll join the boycott.