The Egyptian Constituent Assembly of 2012 (CA) is the committee for the creation of a new Constitution of Egypt. The Muslim Brotherhood had announced that the Constituent Assembly would vote on the constitution on 29 November 2012. The Constituent Assembly will be able to avoid its possible dissolution by voting on the constitution earlier than the release of a ruling by the Supreme Constitutional Court on the assembly's legitimacy; the ruling was expected to occur on 2 December 2012. The court has postponed the verdict in response to protests. The Constituent Assembly approved the constitution on 29 November 2012; more than 16 hours were spent voting on its articles.
In a 31 March to 4 April opinion poll Al Ahram opinion poll, 82.3 percent of the 1200 respondents said they wanted the constituent assembly reformed, to represent all political forces, while 17.7 percent expressed contentment with the current composition. The Supreme Constitutional Court is expected to continue proceedings on the legitimacy of the assembly on 3 February 2013. The lawsuits on the legitimacy of the assembly have been dismissed on 3 March 2013. The Administrative Judiciary Court dismissed more lawsuits on 28 May 2013. The High Constitutional Court ruled that the Constituent Assembly was unconstitutional on 2 June 2013; the Administrative Court is expected to eventually rule on the constitution.
First Constituent Assembly
Egypt's first Constituent Assembly, elected by the Islamist-led parliament, was criticized by many observers due to the preponderance of Islamist members (66 out of 100) it contained: 38 out of the 50 parliamentary members of the constituent assembly were members of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (part of the Democratic Alliance) and of the salafi Al Nour Party (part of the Islamist Bloc). There were only 6 women and only 5 Copts (part of Egypt's Christian minority) out of 100 Members in the constituent assembly.
Out of its 100 elected members, only 75 attend the assembly. Many of the liberal, leftist and social democratic parties like the Free Egyptians Party, the Socialist Popular Alliance, the Dignity Party, the Social Democrats, the Tagammo Party and the Freedom Egypt Party boycotted the election to determine the makeup of the Constituent Assembly because they saw it as an Islamist's attempt to strengthen their power. After the election in 2012, most of them also withdrew from the constituent assembly itself. The liberal New Wafd Party also participated in the boycott.
The first Constituent Assembly was then dissolved when a court rendered it unconstitutional in April 2012. The Supreme Administrative Court had dissolved it in April for including members of parliament in its membership. The court said that according to the March 2011 Constitutional Decree, MPs were responsible for electing the Constituent Assembly, but could not elect themselves. On 10 April, Cairo's administrative court suspended the assembly, judging that the assembly was "unrepresentative" for involving too few women, young people and minority representatives. Liberals and secularists had filed a suit out of fear the constitutional panel could implement a strong role for Islamic religious law in the new constitution.
Second Constituent Assembly
An agreement to form a more balanced assembly was reached on 7 June 2012. 39 seats would be filled by Members of Parliament, six by judges, nine by law experts, one each by a member of the armed forces, the police and the justice ministry, 13 seats by unions, and 21 by public figures. Five seats would be filled by the Al-Azhar University, one of Sunni Islam's most important institutions, and four by the Coptic Orthodox Church. A satisfactory deal was thus reached between Islamist and non-Islamist parties over the membership ratio, but the non-Islamist figures accused their Islamist counterparts of breaking the deal and attempting to secure a voting majority of Islamists once again in the assembly.
MPs then elected a second Assembly, but this one also included parliamentarians, which is why the Assembly faces another court case. The Constituent Assembly however has been given a second chance after the Supreme Administrative Court postponed on 26 June 2012 a decision on dissolving it to 4 September. It can conceivably now finish drafting the constitution before that date rendering a dissolution ruling moot.