committee for violating democratic standards, a constitution was drafted on December 25, 2012,
that was largely exclusionary and contained blatant aberrations from the power of constitutional
legislation; this was followed by the dismissal of a number of judges of the Supreme
Constitutional Court.
When the people discovered that the President had deviated from the objectives of the January
revolution which he promised to achieve, and that he was jeopardizing the rule of law, a
movement of popular protests and demonstrations began. Although a popular campaign to
collect citizens’ signatures in support of an early presidential election was initiated, attracting
around 22 million citizens, this was dismissed by the President. His supporters met these
peaceful demonstrations with violence and intimidation. Faced with this rejection, nearly 30
million citizens took to the streets on June 30, 2013 to demand the overthrow of the existing
regime and correct the course of their revolution. Thus, the political and popular forces agreed
on a national road map to rebuild constitutional institutions and establish a democratic system
that addresses the shortcomings of the previous phase. A 50-member-committee of members of
Egyptian society was formed to amend the constitution.
A revised constitutional draft was
adopted in a popular referendum that won the support of 98.1% of the electorate, with women
participating to an unprecedented degree in the referendum process.
An amended constitution was issued on January 18, 2014 which represented a victory for the
objectives and principles of the revolution. This new constitution also constituted a quantum
leap towards improving the human rights situation in Egypt. This was followed by presidential
elections held in mid-May 2014 in the second phase of the roadmap. The participation rate of
Egyptians at home and abroad reached 47.45% of the total number of voters with the currently
serving president winning with 96.91% of the total vote, amid high participation by women. By
the end of 2015, the final form of the road map was completed with the election of members of
the House of Representatives. The country witnessed presidential and parliamentary elections
which were monitored by a host of civil society organizations and representatives from the
African Union, as well as a number of regional and international organizations, with observers
unanimously agreeing that the electoral process met all the criteria of transparency, neutrality
3