The draft constitution in Iraq did not get a rave review from the New York Times, which editorialized Tuesday: "The draft constitution given to Iraq's national assembly last night does little to advance the prospects for a unified and peaceful Iraq. Nor does it reflect well on the Bush administration, which let its politically motivated obsession with an arbitrary deadline trump its responsibility to promote inclusiveness, women's rights, and the rule of law."[1] -- It was the worst of all worlds: the Sunnis excluded from negotiations so that the Kurds could pursue maximum autonomy with a view to ultimate independence in exchange for as theocractic a theory of legislation as possible for the Shiites. -- But as the Los Angeles Times reported, the constitution was still not quite complete: "[L]awmakers postponed voting on the document for three days in a final bid to gain the support of skeptical Sunni Arab leaders," and "the drafting committee left it up to the transitional National Assembly to sort out issues including specifics on regional rights, the language of the preamble, the removal of Saddam Hussein's former Baath Party members from government, and the exact role of the presidency."[2] -- Meanwhile, "Sunni Arab members of the drafting committee quickly rejected the Shiite-Kurd text, loudly denounced the process, and threatened to work against the document if the assembly endorsed the current version and submitted it to the public in an October referendum," Borzou Daragahi and Ashraf Khalil reported. -- It was supposed to be the Iraqis' constitution, but "U.S. Embassy officials, heavily involved in pressing all sides to quickly come up with a deal palatable to Iraq's disparate groups, huddled with Iraqi leaders until the final moments." -- The Bush White House issued a statement calling the whole affair the "essence of democracy." -- The Atlanta Journal-Constitution emphasized that the last-minute delay had "foiled Bush administration efforts to show progress at a time when polls show Americans are increasingly weary of the U.S. military mission in Iraq," and did not hold out much hope of improving matters during the delay: "Sunni leaders . . . left the Baghdad Convention Center after midnight, angered at what looked to them like a power play."[3] -- The New York Times said that there were doubts about the legality of the delay, describing a scene of "disarray" in which legislators had not even seen the text of the document.[4] -- One of the Sunni member of the drafting committee said that there were "about 20 issues in there that are unresolved," Dexter Filkins and James Glanz reported. -- The Times reported that U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice issued a statement, saying: "The process by which Iraqis have reached this point is historic and in the best tradition of democracy." -- The Times describes a legislative process that can only be described as grotesque: "The political drama began at 11:20 p.m., when the Assembly members began filing into their chambers inside the protected Green Zone here. As midnight approached with all its momentous implications --- including the possible dissolution of the Assembly -- a series of cryptic events took place with a dreamlike slowness. -- At about 11:45, Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, in his front-row seat, scribbled something, possibly his signature, on a large sheet of paper and handed it to Hussain al-Shahristani, the deputy speaker, who was standing over him. Mr. Shahristani turned around and gave the paper to Hachem al-Hassani, the Assembly speaker, who was seated at the center of the podium in front of the Assembly. -- Mr. Hassani took the paper, left the room for a few minutes and returned. At that point, contrary to all expectations, there was no vote of any kind. -- 'Today we received the draft of the constitution,' Mr. Hassani said into his microphone at approximately 11:55. 'But there are some undecided points.' -- 'So these points will be dealt with in the forthcoming three days,' he added. -- Then the meeting hastily broke up. The Assembly members streamed out, nearly all of them without a copy of the constitution in hand. -- Kamal Hamdoun, a Sunni member of the committee who is the chief of the Iraqi Bar Association, immediately declared the maneuvers illegal and asserted that the government was now acting without any formal authority. -- 'I warned them,' Mr. Hamdoun said. 'I told them, you have no legal basis, and that we are not agreeing to this process. I told the American ambassador, too.'" -- The essence and best tradition of democracy, indeed....
1.
Editorial
IRAQ'S UNSETTLING CONSTITUTION
New York Times
August 23, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/23/opinion/23tue1.html
The draft constitution given to Iraq's national assembly last night does little to advance the prospects for a unified and peaceful Iraq. Nor does it reflect well on the Bush administration, which let its politically motivated obsession with an arbitrary deadline trump its responsibility to promote inclusiveness, women's rights, and the rule of law.
The assembly's leadership sensibly decided to give itself a few more days to try to modify some of the badly flawed draft's more contentious provisions on federalism. Unfortunately that appeared to leave little room for the substantial changes needed in other divisive provisions, like the enshrinement of Islamic law and the threats to women's family and property rights.
The draft got to the assembly ahead of this latest deadline, a week later than Washington wanted, only by sidelining until almost the last moment the Sunni Arabs who had so painstakingly been added to the drafting group earlier this year. Since the Bush administration has promoted the constitution as a way to drain support from Sunni insurgents, this exclusionary move was reckless and indefensible.
The Sunnis overwhelmingly favor a strong central government. With them out of the negotiations, the theocratically inclined Shiites and the separatist-minded Kurds found it easy to cut a deal that favored their narrow interests at national expense. The draft would reportedly allow the Kurds to reinforce their autonomy under a weak federal government. The religious Shiites pushed to enshrine Islam in the constitution and the legal system, all the way up through the Supreme Court.
Months ago, the United States was assuring skeptics that the secular Kurds would rein in the Shiite religious parties, while the majority Shiites would limit Kurdish separatism. But instead of being counterweights, these two groups seem mainly to have reinforced each other. Washington, desperate for any draft, encouraged their complicity.
Clinching a deal became easier when the most fundamentalist and most pro-Iranian of the Shiite parties, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, decided that it, too, favored regional autonomy for the oil-rich Shiite southern provinces around Basra. Fortunately, the constitution is said to provide that oil revenues from already discovered fields be distributed nationwide according to population, rather than directly to the new regional governments. To do otherwise would leave the oil-poor Sunni provinces virtually penniless. Still, the prospect of carving up Iraq into loosely linked federal units is likely to intensify Sunni disenchantment with the new constitution and government, a prospect that can only encourage the insurgency.
Approval by a simple majority of the parliament will be only a first step. The draft constitution will then be subject to a national referendum in October. Excluding the Sunnis from that decision won't be so easy. If at least two-thirds of the voters in three of the four Sunni-majority provinces reject the draft, it will not go into effect. Opposition in other provinces is also possible. Shiites in the central provinces near Baghdad, which also lack oil, are wary of federalism. Large numbers of women may turn out in defense of their threatened rights. Secular Iraqis from all regions could choke on the provisions reportedly declaring Iraq an Islamic state and prohibiting any legislation that conflicts with the fixed principles of Islam.
Americans continue dying in Iraq, but their mission creeps steadily downward. The nonexistent weapons of mass destruction dropped out of the picture long ago. Now the United States seems ready to walk away from its fine words about helping the Iraqis create a beacon of freedom, harmony, and democracy for the Middle East. All that remains to be seen is whether the White House has become so desperate for an excuse to declare victory that it will settle for an Iranian-style Shiite theocracy.
2.
World News
IRAQIS BARELY HIT CHARTER DEADLINE
By Borzou Daragahi and Ashraf Khalil
** The draft constitution is vague on key issues. Lawmakers delay vote to try to build consensus. **
Los Angeles Times
August 23, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/23/opinion/23tue1.html
BAGHDAD -- Shiite and Kurdish politicians beat a midnight deadline Monday and submitted a draft constitution to Iraq's National Assembly, but lawmakers postponed voting on the document for three days in a final bid to gain the support of skeptical Sunni Arab leaders.
After months of negotiations and a one-week extension, lawmakers had been expected to either approve a draft constitution by Monday, officially endorse another delay, or scrap the whole process and start over with new elections. Instead, visibly tired politicians muddled through to a half-resolution, presenting a document that left several key issues unsettled.
People who have viewed the document said it includes vague language weakening Iraq's strong central government, enshrining a federalist system, and addressing how oil revenue is to be split between Baghdad and the provinces.
The text calls for such liberties as freedom of expression and the press. It gives Islam a role in national affairs, while offering Iraqis the option of following civil code in areas such as marriage, divorce, and inheritance.
But the drafting committee left it up to the transitional National Assembly to sort out issues including specifics on regional rights, the language of the preamble, the removal of Saddam Hussein's former Baath Party members from government, and the exact role of the presidency, officials said.
"We want a good, solid constitution," said Hoshyar Zebari, Iraq's foreign minister and a Kurd. "We don't want to force a deal on any group that they're uncomfortable with."
Sunni Arab members of the drafting committee quickly rejected the Shiite-Kurd text, loudly denounced the process, and threatened to work against the document if the assembly endorsed the current version and submitted it to the public in an October referendum.
"This constitution is full of mines that are going to explode," Saleh Mutlak, one of 15 Sunnis on the charter panel, told reporters. "The articles stipulated in this constitution will have grave consequences if they are submitted to a referendum. This constitution will lead to a weak Iraq that is unable to defend itself."
Among other groups, though, news of the presentation of the draft was met with elation. State-controlled Al Iraqiya television broadcast raucous scenes of celebration on the streets of Najaf, the Shiite shrine city south of Baghdad that is the political and spiritual backbone of the Shiite-dominated government in the capital.
Men danced in the streets waving Kalashnikovs and Iraqi flags. Cars and trucks packed with jubilant passengers honked their horns and slowed traffic as men served sweets to revelers on the banks of the Euphrates River.
"We are so pleased by the issuing of the constitution, and we pray that God takes the hands of our respectable leaders," an old man in a traditional Arab gown told a television reporter.
With Shiite Muslim and Kurdish politicians dominating the National Assembly, some of their constituents have been urging them to approve a constitution without backing from Sunni Arabs. But Iraqi and U.S. politicians have sought for months to include Sunnis in the process, arguing that doing so could help stanch the Sunni-led insurgency.
U.S. Embassy officials, heavily involved in pressing all sides to quickly come up with a deal palatable to Iraq's disparate groups, huddled with Iraqi leaders until the final moments. Bush administration officials reacted to the fast-moving developments in Baghdad much as they did to last week's delay: They praised Iraqi delegates for their courage and their efforts and described the move as a sign of progress.
Shortly after the three-day delay was announced, the White House issued a statement welcoming the draft constitution's presentation to the assembly as "another step forward in Iraq's constitutional process."
"This is the essence of democracy, which is difficult and often slow, but leads to durable agreements, brokered by representatives that reflect the interests and values of free people," the statement added.
In separate remarks, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice referred to the delay as "a statesmanlike decision," needed to build what she called "the broadest national consensus."
Shiite and Kurdish officials said the constitution was more than 90% finished -- something they have been saying for weeks. The draft constitution has elements sure to rankle and delight all Iraqis, said Barham Salih, planning minister and one of the chief constitutional negotiators.
"I cannot say that any group will be entirely excited with this constitution," said Salih, a Kurdish leader.
It includes compromises on major issues of contention while leaving others to be worked out in future legislation.
On the divisive issue of women's rights in matters of marriage, divorce and inheritance, the constitution would allow Iraqis to choose to have the matters heard in religious courts, or in federal courts run by judges. On the role of religion in legislation, the draft constitution calls Islam "a main source" of legislation instead of "the main source," as many conservative Shiites had demanded. But it would allow clerics to serve on the Supreme Court.
Politicians said a formula for distributing oil revenue had been worked out, though they disclosed few details. Salih said the major Shiite, Kurdish, and secular political parties had hammered out their differences, but balked at approving a constitution without the approval of Sunnis, who have a disproportionately small number of seats in the legislature because they largely stayed away from January's National Assembly election.
"Between the Shiite list, the Kurdish list and [secular former Prime Minister Iyad] Allawi's list, we could literally go and get 90% in parliament," he said. "But we don't want to play it that way. We want to reach out to the Sunnis and bring them on board."
Though they make up about 20% of Iraq's population, Sunni Arabs dominated Iraqi political affairs for decades until the ouster of Saddam Hussein and his Baath Party in 2003. Now, they fear that weakening the central government and turning Iraq into a federation of states with substantial powers could lead to the disintegration of Iraq. Sunnis also disagree with a clause in the draft constitution that condemns the Baath Party's abuses.
"We think de-Baathification and mentioning Saddam's name in the constitution is not the proper thing to do," said Hachim Hassani, speaker of the parliament. "We don't need it."
Although some analysts in Washington questioned whether Monday night's maneuver by politicians adhered to the letter of the transitional law governing Iraq, several said the delay had brought the country back from the brink of possible disaster. A postponement, they contended, was far better for the United States than attempting to push through a draft over the objections of the Sunni minority.
James Dobbins, a Rand Corp. specialist who served as President Bush's special envoy to Afghanistan, said that winning the support of the country's three major population groups for the draft was the top political priority.
"To go ahead without this support would be a great mistake," he said.
Wayne White, a former State Department Iraq specialist who is now a scholar at the Middle East Institute, a Washington think tank, warned that pushing Sunni Arabs out of the process would impede American military objectives.
"The Shiites and Kurds have the vote to ignore a large number of the Sunni Arabs," he said. "But that doesn't make the insurgency go away."
--Times staff writers Tyler Marshall in Washington and Noam N. Levey and Saif Rasheed in Baghdad and members of the Times' Baghdad Bureau contributed to this report.
3.
Nation/World
IRAQIS EXTEND CHARTER DEADLINE
By Larry Kaplow
** Minority Sunnis balk at 'power play' **
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
August 23, 2005
http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/stories/0805/23natiraq.html
BAGHDAD -- Iraqi lawmakers on Monday gave themselves three more days to agree on an already overdue draft constitution, again extending a deadline in the search for consensus among the country's factions.
Despite intense U.S. pressure to meet the midnight deadline, Iraqi officials said the delay was necessary in an effort to win over reluctant Sunni Muslim representatives. Among the main obstacles: a federalist government structure and power-sharing.
Support of the minority Sunnis is seen as crucial for easing division and violence in Iraq.
The delays in the constitution-writing process -- the original deadline was Aug. 15 -- have foiled Bush administration efforts to show progress at a time when polls show Americans are increasingly weary of the U.S. military mission in Iraq.
In Baghdad, Shiite Muslims and ethnic Kurds, who together control the National Assembly, introduced a draft constitution Monday and threatened to ram it through, regardless of Sunni objections.
Sunni leaders responded by vowing to defeat the constitution in the scheduled Oct. 15 national referendum. Such a defeat at the polls could doom efforts to unify the country after decades of Saddam Hussein's tyrannical rule and two years of violence and chaos following the U.S. invasion that ousted him.
The Sunni minority forms the core of the insurgency and remains largely alienated from the country's politics.
Minutes before the deadline to complete the draft, the National Assembly announced it would allow three more days to amend the proposal in an attempt to build consensus.
Sunni leaders, however, left the Baghdad Convention Center after midnight, angered at what looked to them like a power play -- either they agree to something by Thursday night or the draft as now written would be approved for the referendum.
"What happened is that one or two groups took over the decision and offered a reading of the constitution as it wanted, which is so full of mines that will explode on the Iraqis and it will dismember the country," said Sunni representative Saleh Mutlaq. He had earlier threatened an "uprising" if a constitution were adopted without Sunni support.
U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, speaking on CNN, said the new delay was a gesture to the Sunni leadership.
"It is absolutely vital for the stability of Iraq and to win the war against insurgents that Sunnis see themselves in this new picture, this new Iraq that's emerging," he said. "You cannot win this war against insurgents by military means alone."
Outside the heavily fortified Green Zone, where the talks took place, was the usual blood-stained backdrop Monday.
Two U.S. soldiers were killed and two were wounded by a roadside bomb near the city of Samarra, the military reported, bringing the American deaths in Iraq this month to at least 67.
A car bomb killed eight Iraqi police commandos in Baghdad and gunmen killed eight police and three civilians in an ambush of a bus in Taramiyah, on the capital's northern outskirts, according to news services.
U.S. officials have been intensely involved in the negotiations on the constitution, meeting frequently with the factional leaders and writing suggestions, Iraqi officials said.
According to a schedule drawn up last year by the U.S.-appointed Iraqi leadership, Iraqis should vote in a national referendum on the constitution by Oct. 15. The referendum passes if it gets majority support and if no more than two of Iraq's 18 provinces oppose it by two-thirds -- a provision that was intended to force consensus. Each of the major factions -- the Kurds, the Sunnis, and the Shiites -- could muster three provinces against the constitution if they disagree with it.
Kurds, an ethnic minority in the mostly Arab country, seek to preserve the self-rule they have had in the northern region for nearly a decade, with the protection of the United States. Persecuted with ethnic cleansing and chemical attacks by Saddam's regime, they are wary of any rule by central Iraqi authority. Many want an independent state but will take a federal region first, especially one that gives them control over their vast oil wealth.
Sunnis, who come largely from areas without oil, vehemently oppose anything that they view could lead to the country's division. Many Shiites also fear the country's division and could join Sunnis in opposition to the draft in a referendum.
The Sunnis also oppose a constitutional prohibition against the Baath Party, which was the backbone of Saddam's Sunni-led regime.
It was unclear whether the factions had agreed on conservative Islam's role in government. In recent days, women's advocates said their rights would be curbed by the new constitution.
Iraqi lawmakers claimed they had met their deadline simply by receiving a draft in the assembly Monday night. But that would be the case only through a loose interpretation of their requirements.
The March 2004 transitional law said the National Assembly must "write the draft of the permanent constitution by no later than 15 August 2005." As there have been dozens of drafts revised by the constitutional committee, the provision has generally been taken to require a finished draft approved by the National Assembly in a formal vote.
4.
International
Middle East
IRAQ'S ASSEMBLY IS GIVEN CHARTER, STILL UNFINISHED
By Dexter Filkins and James Glanz
New York Times
August 23, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/23/international/middleeast/23iraq.html
[PHOTO CAPTION: Mowaffak al-Rubaie, seated, a Shiite leader, being interviewed after the deadline for an interim consititution was extended again last night.]
BAGHDAD -- Iraqi leaders submitted a draft constitution to the National Assembly just before their self-imposed midnight deadline on Monday, but disagreement with Sunni leaders and other, secular Iraqis left the document incomplete, with fundamental issues still in dispute.
In a legal sleight of hand, the Iraqis decided to give themselves three additional days to close the gaps, despite the requirement in the country's interim constitution that the document be completed by a deadline, which already had been extended a week. That left some Iraqis on the 275-member National Assembly wondering whether they were still in charge, and some Sunni leaders asserting that the delay was illegal.
Shiite and Kurdish leaders said they had come close to completing the constitution on Monday night, but had bogged down over a handful of issues they say can be resolved in the next few days. Most of the disputes pitted them against leaders of the embittered Sunni minority, who had been shut out of the negotiations for much of the past week.
But the Sunnis were not alone in their opposition; they were joined on some major issues by a group of secular Iraqis, led by Ayad Allawi, the former prime minister. Mr. Allawi's group is concerned about what its members describe as an Islamist-minded coalition of the majority Shiites that is pushing for a large autonomous region in the oil-rich south.
Indeed, some Iraqis said Monday that the leaders of the main Shiite coalition, called the United Iraqi Alliance, had intended to cut the Sunnis out of the process altogether, and give a completed constitution to the National Assembly over their objections. Mr. Allawi and some Kurdish leaders stepped in to block that move.
Whether to allow a large Shiite-dominated autonomous region in southern Iraq, which also contains the largest oil fields, is the principal unresolved issue. Sunni leaders and the secular Shiites say they are concerned that such a huge and powerful autonomous region could lead to the breakup of the country.
Minutes after the meeting adjourned, Mr. Allawi, a hulking figure, strode from the National Assembly chambers surrounded by a throng of bodyguards and aides. Asked whether he thought there would be a deal, he turned his head and shrugged.
"God willing, maybe," Mr. Allawi said, and then he turned down the marble staircase and headed out.
The unusual way in which the Iraqi leaders presented the constitution to the National Assembly -- claiming they had met their deadline, but granting themselves another extension -- injected a sense of disarray into the proceedings. Most members left the chambers without reviewing the document.
"I haven't seen it," said Dr. Raja Kuzai, a secular Shiite leader, walking out.
The 72 hours the Iraqis gave themselves came in addition to the seven-day extension they voted for a week ago.
At the heart of the dispute was the decision to largely exclude the Sunni leaders from the talks on the constitution, after the failure to meet the first deadline last week. That meant that any agreements struck by the Shiite and Kurdish negotiators were not really complete.
When the Sunnis were finally brought into the negotiations on Monday afternoon, they promptly rejected several of the constitution's most fundamental provisions.
"There are about 20 issues in there that are unresolved," said Saleh Mutlak, one of the Sunni leaders.
Despite the confusion, some Iraqi leaders expressed confidence that they would be able to finish the constitution in the next three days. In addition to the unresolved questions on Shiite autonomy, they said the two main disputes were whether the constitution would contain language barring members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party from working in the government and how the president and prime minister would be selected.
"The number of issues that we have agreed to in such a short space of time is remarkable," said Barham Salih, a Kurdish leader and minister for planning in the current government.
The American ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, who has a played a central role in helping the Iraqis reach a deal, told CNN afterward that the Iraqis had met "the legal requirement." He hinted at some frustration with the Sunnis, and said he suggested that he would be pressing them in the days ahead.
"If the Sunnis do not support he constitution, that would be very negative," Mr. Khalilzad said. "If one could get from the Sunnis who are participating in particular broad support, that would be extremely helpful."
In Washington, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice congratulated Iraqi leaders for completing a draft constitution and for what she said was a statesmanlike decision to use the next three days to continue reaching out to build the broadest national consensus for it.
"Step by step, the Iraqi people are charting their own path toward a shared future of freedom," Ms. Rice said in a written statement. "The process by which Iraqis have reached this point is historic and in the best tradition of democracy."
The Sunni leaders emerged form the negotiations on Monday appearing angry and frustrated, making it clear that they disagreed on several fundamental issues. Some of them said they were would refuse even to take part in any more negotiations.
"I don't trust the Shiites anymore," said Mr. Mutlak, the Sunni leader. "Frankly, I don't trust the Americans."
Shortly after he said that, Mr. Mutlak turned and bumped into Humam Hamoudi, a Shiite cleric and the chairman of the constitutional drafting committee.
"Congratulations," Mr. Hamoudi said to Mr. Mutlak.
"No, no," said Mr. Mutlak, unsmiling. "Congratulations to you."
"No," Mr. Hamoudi said. "You."
The Sunni leaders said they favored giving the negotiations more time, perhaps several weeks, or, failing that, a dissolution of the government and fresh elections.
Such a prospect seemed unlikely, if only because the Sunnis, who largely boycotted the January elections, hold virtually no seats in the Assembly. For that reason, they cannot legally block the passage of the constitution.
Politically, though, their agreement is considered crucial by many Iraqi leaders and the Bush administration, since it is the Sunni population that forms the backbone of the guerrilla insurgency.
Mr. Mutlak and other Sunnis seemed to be trying to leverage that desire as well as they could. Asked what would happen if the constitution were approved without their support, Mr. Mutlak hinted darkly at the future.
"If this constitution passes, the streets will rise up," he said.
The Sunnis and other Iraqis, including the secular bloc led by Mr. Allawi, are concerned that setting up an autonomous region could be a prelude to establishing a separate state, one that would have most of Iraq's population and most of its oil. According to some negotiators, the secular Shiite leaders had favored withholding the incomplete constitution from the Assembly and opting for a longer delay.
"This is unacceptable," said Dr. Kuzai, a member of Mr. Allawi's party, of the Shiite autonomous region. "It would lead to the breakup of the country."
The political drama began at 11:20 p.m., when the Assembly members began filing into their chambers inside the protected Green Zone here. As midnight approached with all its momentous implications --- including the possible dissolution of the Assembly -- a series of cryptic events took place with a dreamlike slowness.
At about 11:45, Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, in his front-row seat, scribbled something, possibly his signature, on a large sheet of paper and handed it to Hussain al-Shahristani, the deputy speaker, who was standing over him. Mr. Shahristani turned around and gave the paper to Hachem al-Hassani, the Assembly speaker, who was seated at the center of the podium in front of the Assembly.
Mr. Hassani took the paper, left the room for a few minutes and returned. At that point, contrary to all expectations, there was no vote of any kind.
"Today we received the draft of the constitution," Mr. Hassani said into his microphone at approximately 11:55. "But there are some undecided points."
"So these points will be dealt with in the forthcoming three days," he added.
Then the meeting hastily broke up. The Assembly members streamed out, nearly all of them without a copy of the constitution in hand.
Kamal Hamdoun, a Sunni member of the committee who is the chief of the Iraqi Bar Association, immediately declared the maneuvers illegal and asserted that the government was now acting without any formal authority.
"I warned them," Mr. Hamdoun said. "I told them, you have no legal basis, and that we are not agreeing to this process. I told the American ambassador, too."
Mr. Hamdoun said the disputed way in which the process had gone forward did not bode well for the referendum on the constitution, presumably still set for Oct. 15.
"I will tell the people the truth on how this draft has been wrought," Mr. Hamdoun said.