DAR AL ISLAM - EGYPT: MUBARAK WORKING HARD TO LIMIT THE POWER OF THE MOSLEM BROTHERHOOD

Islamist walkout at parliament
By Nadia Abou el-Magd, Associated Press Writer

Opposition lawmakers yesterday boycotted the start of a parliamentary debate on constitutional amendments they say will further tighten Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's grip on power.

Mubarak is seeking a slate of 34 changes in the constitution, part of what his government calls a program of democratic and economic reform.

But the opposition has denounced the changes, saying they do not guarantee free elections and consecrate tough anti-terror powers for the president.

The changes come at a time that the United States, Mubarak's top ally, has reduced public pressure on Egypt to bring greater democracy. Two years ago, the Bush administration made reform in Egypt a top priority, but more recently it has spoken out less often, more concerned with winning Cairo's support in Mideast crises such as Iraq.

As parliament debated the amendments Sunday, more than 100 lawmakers from Egypt's largest Islamist opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, and other parties protested outside the building, wearing black sashes with the slogan, "No to the constitutional coup."

"We announce the death of personal freedom and free elections," read banners that they held.

Egyptian TV, which routinely airs parliament sessions, didn't broadcast Sunday's debate, apparently to avoid showing the empty seats of the boycotting opposition, which makes up about a quarter of the 454-seat Parliament.

"It's not worth it participating in this latest discussion or to later vote (on the amendments," an opposition statement read by the protesting lawmakers said. "No sensible or sincere person can say that its in the interest of people to declare Egypt as a constitutional police state."

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