CAIRO, May 10: Egypt’s parliament, facing mounting calls for reform, on Tuesday approved a constitutional change allowing multiple candidates to stand in presidential elections for the first time, paving the way for a referendum on the amendment later this month. The revision of Article 76 was endorsed by an overwhelming majority of the 454-seat lower house dominated by President Hosni Mubarak’s ruling National Democratic Party (NDP).

Speaker Fathi Surur declared that 405 members of the People’s Assembly voted in favour of the changes and that two abstained.

“The constitutional majority needed to effect amendment has been attained,” Mr Surur said, adding that the change would open a new “era of democracy and liberalism”.

Opponents of the text walked out shortly before the speaker announced the result. The opposition, both secular and religious parties, charges that the amendment sets such tight conditions for registration that only the ruling party will be able to field a candidate, undermining the whole point of the reform.

MPs passed the amendment amid a wave of opposition protests against President Mubarak, who has ruled the Arab world’s most populous country under emergency laws imposed 24 years ago. More pro-reform rallies were held in Cairo as MPs debated the amendment.

Its adoption prompted the main secular reform movement Kefaya (Change) to announce a campaign of civil disobedience. It also called for a boycott of both this month’s referendum and September’s presidential election, charging that the reform was a ‘sham’.

Earlier, Mr Surur argued that restrictions on candidacies were necessary “to guarantee the seriousness of nominations”. President Mubarak, 77, agreed in February to amend the constitution to allow rival candidates to stand, although he himself has yet to announce whether he will run for a fifth six-year term.—AFP