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		</div><p><a href="http://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/panel-urges-competitive-elections.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full" title="Egyptians celebrating after president Hosni Mubarak's departure (AP)" src="http://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/min-panel-urges-competitive-elections.jpg" alt="Egyptians celebrating after president Hosni Mubarak's departure (AP)"/></a></p>
<p>A constitutional reform panel has recommended opening Egypt&#8217;s presidential elections to competition and imposing a two-term limit on future presidents &#8211; a dramatic shift from a system that allowed the ousted Hosni Mubarak to rule for three decades.</p>
<p>The changes are among 10 proposed constitutional amendments that are to be put to a popular referendum later this year.</p>
<p>The proposals appeared to address many of the demands of the reform movement that help lead the 18-day popular uprising that forced Mr Mubarak to step down on February 11.</p>
<p>But some Egyptians worry that the proposed changes do not go far enough to ensure a transition to democratic rule, and could allow the entrenched old guard to maintain its grip on power.</p>
<p>The most important of the eight-member panel&#8217;s proposals would greatly loosen restrictions on who could run for president, opening the field to independents and candidates from small opposition parties.</p>
<p>That marks a drastic change from the previous system that gave Mr Mubarak&#8217;s ruling National Democratic Party a stranglehold on who could run.</p>
<p>&#8220;We were denied the right to have candidates before. Now they opened the door for whoever wants to run,&#8221; said pro-reform Judge Ahmed Mekky. &#8220;This is a step forward.&#8221;</p>
<p>A candidate would be allowed to run by doing one of three things: collecting 30,000 signatures from 15 of Egypt&#8217;s 29 provinces; receiving the approval of at least 30 members of the elected parliament; or representing a party with at least one lawmaker in parliament.</p>
<p>The panel also recommended full judicial supervision of the electoral process, which would address regular criticism that the government routinely rigged past elections to ensure Mr Mubarak&#8217;s party retained its hold on power.</p>
<p>On Egypt&#8217;s widely criticised emergency laws, which have been in place for 30 years and grant police sweeping powers of arrest, the panel proposed limiting their use to a six-month period with the approval of an elected parliament. Extending their use beyond that should be put to a public referendum, it said.</p>
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