Egypt constitutional changes agreed upon

CAIRO – Police fired tear gas to drive hundreds of supporters of Egypt’s ousted Islamist president from Cairo’s famed Tahrir Square on Sunday, as a panel tasked with amending the constitution adopted during his time in office agreed on changes to the text.

The 50-member panel revising the Islamist-tilted charter adopted under former President Mohammed Morsi managed to resolve its differences after two days of clause-by-clause voting on the final draft.

The text gives women and Christians “suitable representation” but says a future law must decide the details. It also calls for elections, either parliamentary or presidential, within 90 days after the draft constitution is adopted. The other election should be held up to six months later.

The new charter would require future presidents to declare their financial assets annually, and allows lawmakers to vote out an elected president and call for early elections if they have a two-thirds majority.

Members agreed that a contentious proposal allowing military tribunals for civilians would be scaled back, allowing them only in case of direct attack on military personnel or assets.

Rights activists had previously objected to the military’s trial of some 10,000 civilians when it ran the country during the 17 months after Egypt’s 2011 revolt that ousted longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

The document is now to be handed over to interim President Adly Mansour, who has a month to call for a national referendum on it.

Morsi supporters have been staging near-daily protests to demand his reinstatement. But Sunday was the first time in more than a year that Islamists entered the central square in significant numbers. The location has been the near exclusive domain of liberal and secular protesters since shortly after Morsi took office in June 2012 as Egypt’s first freely elected president.

Police acted quickly, firing heavy tear gas to clear them from the central plaza barely minutes after they took it over and sending them to take refuge in side streets.

After nightfall, the protesters and police fought pitched battles on side streets off Tahrir and in the downtown area, with police firing tear gas and protesters pelting them with rocks.

Also on Sunday, Egyptian authorities ordered the release from police custody of prominent activist Ahmed Maher, founder of the revolutionary April 6 Movement, a main player in the 2011 revolt against Mubarak.