The head of the assembly drafting Egypt's new constitution said the
final draft would be finished on Wednesday, and three other members of
the assembly told Reuters the document would be put to a vote on
Thursday.
"We will start now and finish today, God willing," Hossam el-Gheriyani,
the assembly speaker, said at the start of a meeting of the
constitutional assembly in Cairo. He said Thursday would be a "great
day", without elaborating, and called on the members who had withdrawn
from the body to return.
Speaking to Reuters, assembly members Younes Makhyoun and Salah Abdel
Maboud, both Salafi Islamists, said a vote on the final draft was
planned for Thursday. Amr Abdel Hadi, one of the few remaining liberal
members, said the same
The Muslim Brotherhood and hardline Salafi parties will hold protests across Egypt on Saturday in support of President Mohamed Morsi, who is facing a wave of demonstrations against a decree that expanded his powers.
Mahmoud Ghozlan, the Brotherhood spokesman, told Reuters: "We have called for pro-Morsi nationwide protests. The exact locations of the protests are currently being discussed."
Salah Abdel Maboud, a leading member of the Salafi Nour Party, confirmed that Islamists would stage protests on Saturday. He said the location could be Tahrir Square, where Morsi's opponents have been camped out for seven consecutive days.
Meanwhile, Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court accused President Mohamed Morsi on Wednesday of taking part in a campaign against the court, heightening tensions between the Islamist leader and parts of the judiciary.
In this context, Egypt's Cassation and Appeals courts said on Wednesday they would suspend their work pending a ruling on the constitutionality of President Mohamed Morsi's decree granting him immunity from judicial review.
"The Cassation Court will suspend its work starting today," the court's vice chairman, Abdel Nasser Abu al-Wafa, said after a meeting of the court's top officials.
Khaled Abdellah, a judge in the Appeals Court, said after a similar meeting that his court would also suspend its work "except in cases related to corruption and personal laws".
Morsi has angered much of the judiciary with a decree that extends his powers and puts his decisions beyond legal review. In a speech on Friday, the president praised the judiciary as a whole but said there were corrupt elements, which he would weed out.
The Constitutional Court, before which Morsi swore his oath of office, declared the Islamist-led parliament void earlier this year, leading to the assembly's dissolution.
On Tuesday, tens of thousands of Egyptians rallied against President Mohamed Morsi in one of the biggest outpourings of protest since Hosni Mubarak's overthrow, accusing the Islamist leader of seeking to impose a new era of autocracy.
Police fired tear gas at stone-throwing youths in streets near the main protest in Cairo's Tahrir Square, heart of the uprising that toppled Mubarak last year. Clashes between Morsi's opponents and supporters erupted in a city north of Cairo.
But violence could not overshadow the show of strength by the normally divided opponents of Islamists in power, posing Morsi with the biggest challenge in his five months in office.
"The people want to bring down the regime," protesters in Tahrir chanted, echoing slogans used in the 2011 revolt.
Protesters also turned out in Alexandria, Suez, Minya and other Nile Delta cities.
Tuesday's unrest by leftists, liberals and other groups deepened the worst crisis since the Muslim Brotherhood politician was elected in June, and exposed the deep divide between the newly empowered Islamists and their opponents.
REUTERS
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