CAIRO: Former presidential candidate and opposition leader Amr Moussa was on Sunday elected head of Egypt’s 50-member panel that has been tasked with drawing up a new constitution.
The panel was named a week ago by interim president Adly Mansour to draw up a revised constitution in the wake of the ouster by the army of former president Muhammad Mursi on July 3.
A disputed constitution drafted under Mursi was approved in a December 2012 referendum with only a 33-percent turnout. Election of Moussa came during the panel’s first session.
Moussa easily held off a challenge by influential lawyer Sameh Ashur, garnering 30 votes against Ashur’s 16, with two abstentions and two absentees.
Moussa heads the National Salvation Front along with ex-UN nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei and leftist Hamdeen Sabbahi, who like Moussa ran against Mursi last June.
Moussa elected head of constitution panel
Moussa elected head of constitution panel
