Egypt parties end deadlock over constitutional panel

 abercrombie fitchPolitical parties in Egypt have agreed on how to select the 100-member panel that will write the country's new constitution, ending weeks of deadlock.A deal was reached after talks between representatives of 22 parties and the head of the ruling military council.Panel members from the parliament are expected to be elected next week.The previous panel was suspended by a court after liberals and secularists walked out, saying it did not reflect the diversity of Egyptian society.The constituent assembly will now include a range of politicians, members of the armed forces, the police, the judiciary and trade unions, as well as Muslim and Coptic Christian religious leaders. The agreement came after the military council set a 48-hour deadline on Tuesday, threatening to propose an arrangement themselves if a deal was not reached. Two-thirds majority According to delegates cited by AFP news agency, 39 seats will be allocated to representatives of parties in the lower house of parliament, the People's Assembly, which is dominated by Islamists from the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party and the Salafist Nour party.Six seats on the constituent assembly also would be given to judges, while nine would go to experts in law, with one seat each for the armed forces, police and the justice ministry, the delegates said.Thirteen seats would be given to unions, while 21 public figures chosen at a meeting on Tuesday would also be appointed, they added.Al-Azhar University, one of Sunni Islam's most important institutions, will be given five seats and the Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt will get four, delegates added.The talks between the political parties and the head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (Scaf), Field Marshal Mohammed Hussain Tantawi, also concluded that any decision by the panel must be endorsed by a two-thirds majority.

abercrombie outletCorrespondents say one of the debates during the drafting process will be over whether the constitution should follow the principles of Islamic law more strictly.The new document will also determine the rights of Egypt's religious and ethnic minority groups and the balance of power between the president - previously the supreme authority - and parliament.The last panel was suspended by Cairo's Administrative Court on 10 April amid a boycott by groups who claimed liberals, secularists, women, young people and minorities were under-represented. Islamists had a near-majority on the panel.The court ruling came after complaints by political groups and constitutional experts over parliament's decision to select the assembly itself and to allocate half the seats to sitting MPs.The complaints said both moves violated Article 60 of the constitutional declaration adopted in a referendum last year - which does not state how the assembly should be appointed - and would also give Islamists unmatched influence over the constitution-drafting process.Egypt is to hold a presidential election run-off on 16 and 17 June, where voters will be asked to choose between Mohammed Mursi, the chairman of the Freedom and Justice Party, and Ahmed Shafiq, a former air force chief who served as Hosni Mubarak's last prime minister.When Egyptians joined a popular revolt last year, many were demanding economic change. They were suffering from high unemployment and prices, low wages, widespread poverty and crippling corruption.Over the last 15 months little has changed and many have even seen their finances worsen.On a bustling street in the Mohandisseen area of Cairo, people come from all walks of life. It is easy to get them to talk about the change in their personal fortunes.

abercrombie outlet online"I used to work as a store manager in a much better shop but after the revolution many shops closed down," says Muhammad Abdul Hamid. "For eight months, I stayed at home, but now I have a new job here.""I'm a model and it's been very hard to find work," says a well-dressed woman, Dina. "After the revolution there [were] no job opportunities at all, particularly for freelancers."A 21-year-old business graduate, Salma, says she has applied for more than 100 jobs and received only five responses. "Before the revolution it was very promising in banking and telecommunications but now the job market is squeezed," she complains.Kiosk businesses Unable to find formal work, many Egyptians from poorer neighbourhoods nearby have branched out into casual jobs. They sell fruit, corn-on-the-cob and cool root beer from carts or kiosks on the pavement outside shops."I was working in a factory before but I lost my job and now I'm just selling cigarettes here," a young man called Mustafa Mohammed tells me.All along the street there are posters for presidential candidates. The first round of voting takes place on 23 and 24 May with a run-off vote scheduled for June.Whichever contender wins, he will be under extreme pressure to deal with Egypt's deep economic crisis. It is going to be a huge challenge.Samir Radwan, Egypt's former finance minister, paints a bleak picture of what lies ahead for the country's new leader."Tourism which used to bring $1bn a month is down. Now it's picking up a little, but it's not back to its 2010 level of 13m tourists a year.""There is the rising price of energy and Egypt is a net importer of energy so that puts a heavy burden on the budget. The result is that you have a budget deficit coming close to 10% of GDP," he adds.Radwan said that domestic production has halted in parts of Egypt as hundreds of factories have closed down. Exports were also lower compared to pre-revolution levels.Investment potential At a glaze factory, in an industrial zone to the north-east of Cairo, not all the recent news has been bad.

 abercrombie saleManager Walid Sobhy shows me the red-hot liquid streaming from five furnaces at the site, he explains that demand from the ceramics industry has remained stable.He is relieved that it has been relatively unaffected by the recent strikes hitting other sectors. Yet foreign investment has been harmed by the political upheaval."A lot of investors stopped everything because the situation is unclear. They are waiting for this election before they invest in Egypt. Foreign direct investment needs political stability."He believes that the future in Egypt should be better. "With a good president who is honest and has a good vision, I hope that Egypt will be in the top 10 countries in the world in 20 years.""We have infrastructure and we have raw materials, we have a big labour force and space and we have the cheapest power. There are a lot of opportunities in Egypt."It is an assessment that many experts agree on: Egypt has potential.But before it can be fully harnessed the next leader will have to make serious reforms, particularly to the inefficient subsidy system, which takes up 30% of the national budget.It will be a tricky task to ensure that the poor do not end up worse off.Egypt's next leader will also carry with him the burden of high expectations. Many Egyptians anticipated dramatic economic improvements after last year's uprising but they did not materialise. Now they are relying on the new president to deliver on the promises of the revolution.Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood is the grandfather of Islamist groups in the Middle East. Since the organisation was set up in Ismailia in 1928, its influence has spread across the region and the Arab uprisings of 2011 have provided it with unprecedented political opportunities.A Brotherhood candidate, Mohammed Mursi, will fight the run-off for the Egyptian presidential elections after taking the biggest share of votes in the first round of voting.

cheap abercrombie clothes When I recently attended a rally for him in a poor neighbourhood on the edge of Cairo, there was a large, enthusiastic crowd chanting and waving posters. The electoral machine was in full operation.Men and women sat separately in front of a large stage that had been erected on a plot of wasteland between high-rise apartment buildings. For one night, volunteers had transformed the area, placing carpets on the ground and stringing up lanterns to add a kind of festive feel."Dr Mohammed Mursi is the most powerful man in these elections," a Brotherhood member, Mustafa, told me, confident of a win. "At last we'll have a very good president who will bring freedom and justice for all Egyptians." "We want to try the Islamic ideas," said Hana Hassan. "We think that Dr Mohammed is the man for this time."Another woman, Widad, pointed to the organisational strength of the Brotherhood as a reason to support its campaign. "What will make me elect Dr Mursi is not Dr Mursi as a person, but it's their project as a group," she said.Islamists already dominate the new parliament in Egypt. The Brotherhood's political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party [FJP], controls the largest bloc.'Renaissance' The organisation, which was banned for six decades, is currently undergoing a renaissance - the very word it has chosen as the title for its wide-ranging political plan for Egypt.In other Arab countries where there have been uprisings, related groups are also on the rise.In Libya, where a national assembly election is expected on 19 June, the Muslim Brotherhood has become a main political player. In Syria, it remains an important opposition force.The movement has also inspired Tunisia's main Islamist party, Ennahda (Renaissance), which leads a governing coalition."I believe this is a very important historical moment. For the first time, the Islamic movements have the right to participate in politics," says Fatima Abuzeid, who works in the FJP's Foreign Relations Unit.Crossing borders Recently, Egypt's Brotherhood, long held back by travel bans, has sent delegations of its leading members across the world.

 abercrombie ukHowever it has put a special focus on its neighbours where political change is also under way."Egypt is becoming a very important actor, other countries with revolutions are becoming very important," says Mrs Abuzeid."We are trying to come close to each other, to work as partners. We are trying also to have a kind of coordination on our foreign relations, to build a kind of effective foreign relations for the Arab countries."It is this new development that is producing a dramatic shift in the region. As a strong Sunni Muslim bloc emerges in North Africa, it is already starting to undermine the regional influence of Iran, a big Shia Muslim power.Until recently, Tehran's support for Syria and other proxies - the militant group, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza - gave it regional leverage.Now Shadi Hamid, research director at the Brookings Doha Centre, believes it is much weaker."What we used to call the resistance axis made up of Syria - Hamas and Hezbollah - that's been destroyed. Iran is not on the right side of these regional changes," he says."There's a kind of tendency in the West to make Iran into some kind of regional superpower. But I think now at least when you measure it by soft power, that's not the case at all."Hamas office In Egypt, there is more evidence of how the Arab spring's upheaval is having an effect on the Palestinian Islamist group, Hamas.I travelled to a well-off New Cairo neighbourhood to meet Musa Abu Marzouk, who recently moved here when his group's political bureau was forced out of Syria, where it was living in exile.Hamas, which governs Gaza, is an ideological offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood. Mr Abu Marzouk told me it hopes to benefit from regional changes."When you see the same ideology, the same Islamists in all North Africa, I guess it's going to be good for Hamas," he said.