Egypt interim president receives draft constitution

Egyptian interim President Adly Mansour on Tuesday received the draft of the new constitution as prelude to casting it to public referendum. Speaking to reporters following handing the document to the interim president, chairman of the 50-member committee on the development of the constitution Amr Moussa said he discussed with Mansour the next measures to implement the road map for the future "which drew support from everybody. "Neither the presidency nor the armed forces intervened in the works of the committee which was empowered to amend the constitution of 2012," he said, ruling out the possibility of interim President turning down the draft or asking the committee to introduce any amendment to it. He noted that the constitution of 2012 was suspended as a result of the ouster of president Mohammad Morsi on June 30 and the mass protests at that time. Moussa called on the voters to turn out en masse in the coming referendum on the new constitution and vote for it, saying: "Egypt is undergoing a very serious sedition that must come to an end." On the article of the constitution providing for immunizing the post of the defense minister, he said: "We have to take account of the attacks on the armed forces and the victims who fall every now and then. This is an interim provision, not a permanent one and it was approved by the majority of the members of the committee." Asked whether he plans to run for presidency, Moussa, a former presidential candidate in June, 2012, affirmed that he will not stand the coming race. In a related development, Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy said his ministry has set up a committee for overseeing the voting by overseas Egyptians in the coming referendum on the constitution. "The committee, chaired by deputy foreign minister, is analyzing all experiments from the past elections and referendums while arranging for the coming votinig," he told MENA news agency before leaving for New Delhi. He added that the Egyptian embassies across the world will issue bulletins for their compatriots on how to get enlisted as voters. Fahmy is scheduled to visit India, Bahrain and Guinea to discuss bilateral political, economic and commercial ties