BREAKING NEWS

Egypt's draft constitution enshrines army role in politics

Egypt's new constitution,according to a draft text completed on Saturday nearly fivemonths after the army deposed an Islamist president, willbolster the military's hand and ban religious parties.

The constitution, expected to be put to a referendum inDecember, is part of an army-planned political transition meantto lead to parliamentary and presidential elections next year.

"In the early hours of the morning the assembly (reached) anoverall consensus over the constitution articles," its chairman, former Arab League chief Amr Moussa, told a news conference.

The 50-member constituent assembly later began voting toapprove the draft, article by article, and once this process iscomplete it will submit the document to interim President AdliMansour, who will set a date for the referendum.

The final draft, seen by Reuters, does away with theIslamist-inspired additions that featured in the constitutionapproved by a referendum during Morsi's year in office.