Egyptian leftists resign from constitutional panel in protest at Islamist power

Liberals and leftists accused the two most powerful Islamist parties of packing the assembly with their supporters to ensure a constitution steeped in Islamic ideology. Islamists took more than 70 percent of legislative seats. The Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party alone has nearly half of the seats in the newly elected parliament.

“We are going to boycott this committee, and we are going to withdraw and let them make an Islamic constitution. We are going to continue struggling for a secular Egypt in the streets,” said Mohammed Abou el Ghar, head of the Social Democratic Party, who was elected to the assembly but has resigned his post. “We agreed that this will be a balanced committee and it will represent all views of Egypt. But as you can see, there is no representation of secular Egypt.”