nterim Egyptian President Adli Mansour on Monday did his fellow citizens a huge favor by issuing his “constitutional declaration,” which is designed to do two things. First, with the country’s 2012 constitution suspended until it can be amended, the declaration is supposed to provide a bare-bones constitutional framework. Second, it spells out the rules by which the 2012 constitution can be amended, and elections for parliament and president restored.
If experience is any guide—and it should be, because Egypt’s 2013 transition plan bears many of the hallmarks of its last one—Mansour’s declaration will set off more political battles than it will resolve. Indeed, the Muslim Brotherhood has already rejected the timetable. But the document does make three things much clearer than before.
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