Amr Moussa has been elected head of the 50-member committee tasked with amending the 2012 Constitution, which got to work Sunday at the Shura Council, Al-Ahram reported.

With 30 votes Moussa, formerly Arab League Chief and a presidential candidate, was head to head with Sameh Ashour, chairman of the Lawyers Syndicate, who only won 16 votes, the state-run paper said.

Two of the committee’s members abstained from voting, and two votes were invalidated.

The members of the committee were announced by interim President Adly Mansour last week. It is expected to finalize amendments to the 2012 Constitution, which was ratified under ousted President Mohamed Morsi, within two months. The amendments will then be presented to the president to be put up for referendum within 30 days. Under that timetable, Egypt will hold the referendum in November.

The committee includes only two Islamist figures: Bassam Zarqa, deputy head of the Salafi Nour Party, and Kamal al-Heblawy, a former Muslim Brotherhood member.

Moussa served as secretary general of the Arab League from 2001 to 2011. Before that, he served in Hosni Mubarak’s government as minister of foreign affairs from 1991 to 2001.

Moussa placed fifth in the 2012 presidential election, earning only 11.13 percent of the vote. After the elections, he formed the Conference Party, from which he stepped down as head last July.