Egypt panel recommends referendum be held on time

By By SARAH EL DEEB | Associated Press – 6 hrs ago

• 
  Enlarge Photo
  Associated Press/Hassan Ammar - An Egyptian protester takes a picture with his mobile of his children on top of an Egyptian army tank outside the presidential palace, background, in Cairo, Egypt, Saturday, …more 

RELATED CONTENT

     

• Enlarge Photo
  Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi …
• Enlarge Photo
  An Egyptian vendor sells tags that …

CAIRO (AP) — A national dialogue committee said a referendum on a disputed draft constitution will be held on schedule, but President Mohammed Morsi has agreed to rescind the near-absolute power he had granted himself.

The statement came after a meeting that was boycotted by the main opposition leaders who are calling for the Dec. 15 vote to be canceled.

Morsi had called for the dialogue to try to defuse a spiraling crisis, but the decision appeared unlikely to appease the opposition since it recommends the referendum go ahead as scheduled. Morsi's initial declaration was to be rendered ineffective anyway after the referendum.

Gamal Eid, a human rights lawyer, said the recommendations to rescind some powers were a "play on words" since Morsi had already achieved the desired aim of finalizing the draft constitutionand protecting it from a judicial challenge.

The charter, which would enshrine Islamic law and was drafted despite a boycott by secular and Christian members of the assembly, is at the heart of a political crisis that began Nov. 22 when Morsi granted himself authority without judicial oversight.

Opposition activists are camping outside the presidential palace and are calling for more protests on Sunday.

Several rallies on both sides have drawn tens of thousands of people into the streets and sparked fierce bouts of street battles that have left at least six people dead. Several offices of the president'sMuslim Brotherhood also have been torched in the unrest.

Selim al-Awa, an Islamist at the meeting, said the committee found it would be a violation of earlier decisions to change the date of the referendum.

However, the committee recommended removing articles that granted Morsi powers to declare emergency laws and shield him from judicial oversight.

Members of the committee said Morsi had agreed to the recommendations, but there was no confirmation from the Islamist leader.

Bassem Sabry, a writer and activist, called the changes a "stunt" that would embarrass the opposition by making it look like Morsi was willing to compromise but not solve the problem.

"In the end, Morsi got everything he wanted," he said, pointing out the referendum would be held without the consensus Morsi had promised to seek and without giving people sufficient time to study the document.

The majority of the 54 members of the committee were Islamists, as well as members of the constitutional panel that drafted the disputed charter. But the main opponents were not present at the meeting, which lasted over 10 hours.

The panel also said that if the constitution is rejected by voters, Morsi will call for the election of a new drafting committee within three months, a prospect that would prolong the transition.

Opponents say the draft constitution disregards the rights of women and Christians.

The president has insisted his decrees were meant to protect the country's transition to democracy from former regime figures trying to derail it.

The deepening political rift in Egypt had triggered an earlier warning Saturday from the military of "disastrous consequences" if the constitutional crisis isn't resolved through dialogue.

It was the first political statement by the military since the newly elected Morsi sidelined it from political life.

Weeks after he was sworn in, Morsi ordered its two top generals to retire, and gave himself legislative powers that the military had assumed in the absence of parliament, which had been dissolved by the courts.

The military said serious dialogue is the "best and only" way to overcome the conflict, which has left the country deeply divided between Islamist supporters of the president and his mostly secular opponents.

"Anything other than (dialogue) will force us into a dark tunnel with disastrous consequences, something which we won't allow," the military said in a statement broadcast on state TV and attributed to an unnamed military official.

Heightening the tension, Hazem Abu Ismail, the leader of group of radical Islamists staging a sit-in outside a media complex on the outskirts of Cairo, gave a thinly veiled threat of more violence, saying the protest outside the presidential palace was an "affront" to the president and will not be tolerated.