Protest in NYC against the constitutional amendments

Submitted by youssef on Fri, 2007-03-23 14:23.
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News

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When: Monday, 26^th from 12:30pm to 1:30pm

Where: Egyptian Consulate in NYC (1110 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10022)

Contact :Shehab Fakhry shehabfakhry@yahoo.com
917-392-9408

Background:

As you might have read in the news, the Mubarak regime has decided it no longer needs to keep up pretences of reform, and has recently rammed through amendments to the Constitution that would essentially negate basic legal rights for anyone the government chooses to define as involved in activities they don't like (Article 179, which overrides all basic rights enshrined in Article 41), and would end judicial oversight of elections, which was the last hope for ensuring that elections would not be fully rigged (Article 88). Amnesty International has called this the "greatest erosion of human rights" since Egypt's emergency laws were put into place in 1981.

These amendments are being put to a referendum on Monday, and from all past experience, referenda in Egypt are heavily rigged at every step, from counting and multiple voting fraud to the deployment of state security and thugs to prevent oppositional voters from casting their votes, to the handpicking and/or intimidation of those supposed to monitor the vote. The regime has advanced the date for the referendum by a week to hamper efforts to mobilise against the amendments, which is why activists have to move quickly to raise awareness about the authoritarian backsliding the changes represent, particularly outside Egypt. Your attendance and/or help would be very much appreciated at this critical time.

Please come and protest against the amendments.