Parliament 2025 elections: A quick guide

Here is a quick fact box about the first stage parliamentary elections in Egypt that will kick off on Monday.

Domestic voting will take place in two phases, on 10–11 and 24–25 November 2025, to determine the composition of the 596-seat chamber, divided almost evenly between 284 individual seats and 284 filled through the absolute closed party-list system, with an additional 28 members appointed by presidential decree.

10,893 polling stations will be set up — 5,606 for the first phase and 5,287 for the second — under the supervision of 9,600 judges from the Administrative and State Councils.

The first phase will cover 14 governorates — Giza, Beni Suef, Fayoum, Minya, Assiut, New Valley, Sohag, Qena, Luxor, Aswan, Red Sea, Alexandria, Beheira, and Marsa Matrouh — with 284 seats contested.

The remaining governorates will take part in the second phase on 24-25 November in 13 governorates —Cairo, Qalyubia, Dakahlia, Monufia, Sharqia, Gharbia, Kafr el-Sheikh, Damietta, Port Said, Ismailia, Suez, North Sinai, and South Sinai.

Four coalition lists — the Popular List, Your Voice for Egypt List, Call of Egypt List, and Generation List — were disqualified for failing to meet the legal and procedural requirements set by the National Election Authority (NEA).

As a result, the National Unified List for Egypt was the only coalition list approved to contest all four designated electoral constituencies.

This means that 284 seats have been filled via the absolute closed party list systems already, without elections technically.

This means that 284 seats have already been filled through the absolutely closed party-list system — effectively without real elections. The system has faced heavy criticism for this reason. Supporters, mostly pro-regime voices, argue that it helps ensure representation for minorities such as women and Christian Egyptians.

In reality, however, it does not.

This marks the second consecutive parliamentary election in which the coalition list has been approved.

The only difference is that the National Front Party has joined the coalition led by the Nation’s Future Party.

Egypt is divided into four party-list constituencies comprising 284 seats: Cairo and the Central and Southern Delta (102 seats); North, Central, and South Upper Egypt (102 seats); Eastern Delta (40 seats); and Western Delta (40 seats).

Criminal Procedures Law amendments: Approved but still unconstitutional!!

Too many things are happening in Egypt and along its borders this week — but this is a particularly important development that deserves everyone’s attention.

On Thursday, Egypt’s House of Representatives approved amendments to the Criminal Procedures Law but postponed their enforcement until October 2026, following presidential directives that sent the legislation back for revision. The delay aims to allow additional time to ensure the law’s effective and orderly implementation.

Ancient Egyptian Deity of Justice Maat and the Egyptian Parliament

In September, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi referred the draft law back to parliament after objections were raised to several provisions, including Article 105. Parliament had originally passed the 544-article bill in April, following three years of preparation and five months of debate.

Now, the parliament has approved the amended version on the final day of its session — and what a finale it was.

According to the government, the legislation aims to modernise Egypt’s justice system and will take effect at the start of the next judicial year, in October 2026, following presidential ratification.

The Ministry of Justice explained that the postponement reflects practical and organizational considerations highlighted in the president’s observations — including the need for extensive technical and administrative preparations, such as establishing phone-based notification centers in all district courts, training judicial personnel, and completing the digital infrastructure required for the law’s implementation.

However, despite parliamentary approval, controversy continues to surround the amendments — particularly Article 105, which allows prosecutors, under certain urgent circumstances, to interrogate defendants without their lawyer present.

Yes, you read that right: “to interrogate defendants without their lawyer present under certain urgent circumstances.”

The amendment, proposed by the Ministry of Justice and adopted by the special parliamentary committee, stipulates that if a lawyer cannot attend promptly, the prosecution may request the local bar association to appoint one — or proceed with the interrogation until the lawyer arrives. The appointed or retained lawyer retains the right to review all procedures conducted in their absence.

Egypt in the past 10 days (Vol.2)

I could not update or write anything on the blog for ten days or something because whenever I started on something, another huge thing happened that needed attention.

At the same time, I battled some cold or the flu or that variant and it already weakened me as I realized firsthand how due to the economic crisis, the effective material in Egyptian medicines “once a top product of Egypt highly demanded in the Arab world” was reduced due to importation woes.

In fact, I do not know if they are ten days or more, but I know I was starting an attempt to do something about Egypt’s victims in Libya’s Derna Deluge tragedy. If my calculations are right, we have the biggest human loss for Egyptian expats across the borders.

Nevertheless, nobody is ready to speak about it or hear it.

Busy ten days 

I hate to say it, but I am trying to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the October War but the shadow of what is happening whether the elections circus or rather that battle of proxies on one side and the economic developments in the past 48 hours from another side do not give me a chance.

Needless to say, I feel that this is the quietest anniversary Egypt has seen so far despite all knowing that there are huge preparations for big celebrations involving air shows and so on because it is the jubilee. Maybe the airshows will be held on the Egyptians Air Forces Day.

Now here is a terrible summary of what is happening in Egypt and outside and you tell me how I can deal with all that.

The Menendez Halal’s bribe allegations

On 22 September, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams and the Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation “FBI” James Smith unsealed the indictment charging US Senator Robert Menendez, his wife Nadine Arslanian Menendez and three other men including Egyptian-American Wael Hana aka Will Hana with federal bribery charges.

An early Halloween to remember in Egypt: Egyptian Pound devalued as Egypt reaches an agreement on IMF loan

It was expected again but the question was when.

Some said that it would be after the COP27 which is to be held in Sharm El-Sheikh after a couple of weeks while others said it would be after that call of protests by Pro-Muslim Brotherhood groups on 11/11 which everyone expects to be a failure.

I knew it was a matter of days when Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly announced on Wednesday that that batch of decisions included raising public sector employees’ minimum wages and maintaining electricity prices through June 2023.

But it would not be in October because it was the time of the upcoming scheduled Monetary Policy Committee “MPC” meeting

It did not pass 24 hours when we found out the Central Bank of Egypt’s Monetary Policy Committee held an emergency meeting early Thursday morning to raise the key interest rates by two per cent (200 bps) to reach 13.25 %, 14.25%, 13.75%, and 13.57 % for the overnight deposit rate, the overnight lending rate, the rate of the main operation, and the discount rate, respectively.

Egypt's Central Bank in Downtown Cairo 

Following that decision, the Egyptian pound began its depreciation trip between 13.5% and 15% to record a low of 23.09 against the US dollar. “It lost about 16.3%”

In a couple of hours, the announcement came officially from Cairo: Egypt reached a 46-month staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) with a loan worth about USD 3 billion.

In a press conference by PM Madbouly, it was announced that the IMF’s US $3 billion loan is a part of a US $9 billion finance scheme that is expected to include one billion dollars from the sustainability fund and the US $5 billion from the country’s development partners.

Devaluing the Egyptian pound against the price of the US dollar was among the main issues if it were not the main issue standing against getting that IMF loan this time.

The tragedy of Shorouk and friends : Victims of child labor

On Monday, hundreds of Egyptians in Nile Delta town walked in the funeral of a 13-years-old girl who captured many hearts and minds in Egypt with her smiling picture online as attempts of finding her body was underway for whole 8 cold days in the River Nile in yet another Egyptian tragedy.

Sometimes the Egyptian tragedies have this dark humor side because on the same Monday and probably at the same moment the funeral was walking in the streets of a small village in Monufia governorate, Egypt’s Senate approved articles related to child labor in the new labor draft law in Cairo without serious social dialogue officially.

Late Shorouk Yasser 

It is like some sort of very dark humor that I do not understand how it is happening or how it was allowed to happen, but this is classical Egypt.

When the Nile gathered the young egg gatherers

According to the official accounts, late Monday 10 January a half truck carrying 24 daily workers got on an unlicensed ferry to the Nile River when the truck diver lost control of his truck and drove it in to the river near Monshaet El-Kanater village in Giza governorate.

10 people drowned while 14 others survived.

Now those 24 workers were on their way home in Monufia governorate from a farm in Giza governorate late night in the cold winter. They were working as egg gatherers in a poultry farm for a fee that ranged from LE 25 to 50 per day according to their families

Their ages ranged between 13 to 20 years old as reported by the official Public Prosecutor’s statement on the accident. 

The youngest and the last one to reappear from the Nile was Shorouk Yasser.

Senate Elections : Voting Gal Upper Chamber elections 2020 Edition

Unlike my Voting Gal posts, I have posted since I began voting in Egyptian elections in 2005, this post won't be long.

It will be a very short post.

I did not vote in Egypt’s Senate Elections nor go to a polling station on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The Senate elections banners in the street 

Aside from the coronavirus pandemic, I did not support having an Upper Chamber in the first place especially it is toothless Senate.

The political parties with whom I share similar political and economic ideas are boycotting these elections

I won’t elect a list with the same NDP faces on it from businessmen tycoons as its stars while the rest of the names in the list are unknown to me and to others.

The same thing about individual candidates.

I only saw their banners and posters in those two weeks but I have not heard them or seen them in the media before

Some candidates used boldly fake twitter accounts and hashtags to support their candidacy and it turned in to comedy.

One candidate hired fake twitter accounts allegedly from the Gulf to support him !! I am ready to pay the fine for not going to vote. 

Anyhow, I am waiting to see what will happen in the upcoming House of Representatives elections.

It is supposedly going to be next November.

Egypt got Senate elections on Tuesday in case you do not know

In case you do not know Egypt has got Senate elections tomorrow Tuesday and Wednesday.

Yes, and already the Egyptians abroad should have participated and elected their representatives on Sunday and Monday via mail around the globe due to coronavirus pandemic.

Back in Cairo, most of the Egyptians would have not known that there would be Senate elections or Senate in the first place if it were not the big banners.

I would say that the Senate elections banners revived the billboard and outdoors ad industry after it was hit hard by the coronavirus.

One of the elections banners in Giza's Agouza 

So here is what you need to know about the Egyptian Senate which is having a comeback :

• The Upper Chamber of the Parliament returned back thanks to the 2019 Constitutional amendments.
• The Senate is made up of 300 members aka Senators.
• One-third of the Senate is appointed while the two-third are elections.
• The Two-third is divided between One third elected in single-member constituencies and other third is elected.
• The Senate will review and assess the laws passed by the House of Representatives.
• Just read this report by Mada Masr for more background juicy details about it “How We Moved backwards”

Egyptian Chronicles’ Shakers and Movers of 2019

Okay, I am trying to keep an annual event in Egyptian Chronicles.

Here is my list of those I believe that have been the shakers and movers of 2019.
I started writing down this post at 3:22 PM, yes it is my epic procrastination for the year. Since October I have been suffering this bloody procrastination

This is not the list of the top people but rather those made an impact whether positive or negative based on my own views
This list is without any order. These names were the ones that came into my mind in those few hours.

Locally

Mohamed Ali, Soroya Mohamed, Mohamed Salah, Alaa Abdel Fattah

• The few Egyptian protesters who surprised everybody including the Egyptians themselves and the world in September. 
• Mohamed Ali, the former 15-years-civilian army contractor/one-time actor and producer/real estate developer/self-exiled/whistleblower/opposition figure. From where shall I start? There is no doubt that the 45-years-old man whom many Egyptians did not know before shook and moved things in Cairo like none other. He was like the danger that the regime has not ever thought about. The street smart guy in self-exiled unleashed a shock wave that Egyptian activists are paying its price a crackdown. Yet on another popular level, some members of the working class look to him as the anti-hero who made enough noise to disturb the upper class and government as some said. Ali’s wave lessened in December but he returned back with some Document to bring together the Egyptian opposition allegedly. He got less audience than before but he is officially there and can’t be ignored or disregarded after all he reached segments revolutionary intelligentsia failed to reach.

• Wael Ghonim and his return as well his complete change representing what the last nine years of social and political bullying can turn you. Ghonim is having a comeback online with constant vlogging discussing his thoughts. He is not your old Wael Ghonim but rather a new version of that Egyptian activist the world knew. “P.S: in case you do not know Wael Ghonim’s brother apolitical dentist Hazem Ghonim was released from detention last week”.

• MP Ahmed Tantawy, the opposition voice in the Egyptian parliament whom many suspect to be another fake décor
• A group of Egyptian journalists who remind me that this profession is not dead yet in Egypt and there is more to present and I got many names starting with the Mada Masr team, investigative journalist Ahmed El-Shamy, videographer Mostafa Darwish and Egypt’s only Pulitzer winners AP journalist Maggie Michael and Nariman El-Mofty who have not been honored yet by the Egyptian journalists syndicate as far as I know.

• Egyptian basketballer Soroya Mohamed aka the new Queen Cleopatra who was chosen among the world's best players in 2019. She is also Rami Malak’s Muslim Twin sister.

MP El-Tantawy has no place in Egypt now according to parliament speaker

On Tuesday, Egypt’s House of Representatives announced that it referred MP Ahmed El-Tantawy to a disciplinary committee.

The decision was taken after reportedly 95 MPs reported him and demanded that he would refer to the disciplinary committee with a possible outcome of being expelled.

“Who speaks about the elections, the constitutional amendments, the nation and the political leadership negatively has no place in Egypt,” House of Representatives Speaker Ali Abdel Aal said on Tuesday while raising the bar for Pro-regime speakers before him or after him.

MP Ahmed Tantawy in one of the parliamentary sessions in Cairo
"Cairo 24" 

The speaker added that just because that freedom granted to humans, did not mean that they are allowed to speak in everything with no limits !!

So how did El-Tantawy speak negatively about the Egyptian nation and the political leadership?

The Nasserite politician presented a-12-points initiative about forming 12 parliamentary committees made equally from the opposition and majority MPs “How many real opposition MPs do we have in the first place ?” to support political and economic reforms in order to end this political deadlock in Egypt on Sunday in an hour and something video.

There will be more political and media reforms in Egypt : Parliament speaker says

The House of Representatives' speaker Ali Abdel Aal said on Tuesday there would be political, partisan and media reforms in Egypt in the upcoming period.
"There will be new measures in the coming period to reactivate Egypt's political life." Abdel Aal said in the opening procedural session of the parliament in Cairo.

Aside from the usual blaming of foreign hostile powers working against the country, the speaker of the House asked the current cabinet led by PM Mostafa Madbouli “not export problems to the president of the republic and to parliament”.

A file photo of Parliament speaker Ali Abdel Aal "Al-Ahram"

He said the following too according to VetoGate “Hitler had his mistakes but what enabled him to expand East and West was Germany’s infrastructure which is the locomotive that led Germany to become a top-level country and the rich countries are economic countries like Korea and Indonesia”

I do not know but that “Hitler” reference is troubling on many levels because historically the infrastructure that the infamous dictator built in Germany was destroyed after the defeat of Nazis in WWII !! Also, Hitler did not “have mistakes” , Hitler did horrifying war crimes that the world is still paying their prices !!
I do not know what the former professor of constitutional law is trying to justify or say here.
Aside from Hitler and the bad government as well as the promise of upcoming reforms, there were strange quotes in that opening procedural session in the last term for this parliament from unexpected people.

In the same session, we heard Pro-regime MP Mostafa Bakry saying that “The war against expressing opinions must be stopped, this is not Egypt that we sacrificed for !!”
Bakry’s TV show on Sada El-Balad which had its share from crazy conspiracy theories and genius children has suspended from a couple of weeks ago.

Egypt’s Constitutional amendments : The final version

In less than 24 hours, Egyptians around the globe should be flocking to Egyptian embassies and consulate to kick off the Constitutional amendments referendum officially.
Here are the final version of the constitutional amendments as approved by the parliament and as originally published by Ahram Online in English.

Pro-amendments banner in Heliopolis 

The articles involving the President of the Republic

The most controversial two amended articles from those controversial amendments.
In 70 days, the presidential term period changed according to Al-Manassa report.
The draft of the constitutional amendments which was presented to the House of Representatives on 9 February allowed current Egyptian president Abdel Fattah El-Sisi to stay in power and run for the office till the year 2034.

Then on 12 April, the amendment changed to allow Sisi to run for the office till the year 2026.
On 13 April, the amendment changed to allow him to run for the office till the year 2024.
A day later, on 14 April the amendment was changed to allow him to run till the year 2030.
Up till now, I do not fully understand why those changes took place.

Needless to say, I am totally against any extension of any kind to any president even if he were the man that transferred Egypt into a total liberal constitutional parliamentary country. There is also a constitutional debate that this amendment itself is unconstitutional and contradicts with Constitution 2014 and its articles that stipulates any amendments to the presidential powers related articles must be accompanied with more guarantees in political freedoms 

Amended Article No.140 :

The president of the Republic shall be elected for six (instead of four) years, beginning on the day after the end of his predecessor's term, and he/she cannot remain in office for more than two consecutive terms.

New transitional article 214 :

The term of the current sitting president Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi is to end after six years following the date of his election as president in 2018, and he can be re-elected for another six-year term.

The articles involving the vice president’s position
That position was originally abolished in Constitution 2014 for no apparent reason but it is back.
The word says that there current minister of transportation Kamel El-Wazir and current head of General intelligence service Abbas Kamel.

New article 150 :

The president of the Republic may appoint one or more deputies and shall determine their duties. The president may delegate his deputies to perform some of his duties and he has the authority to relieve them from their posts and accept their resignation.
The vice president of the Republic shall take the oath as stipulated in Article 144 of the constitution before the president of the republic.
The provisions of the constitution shall apply to the vice president of the republic in articles 141, 145 and 173.

New Article 160 :

If a temporary obstacle makes the elected president unable to perform his duties, he will be replaced by a vice president or prime minister if there is no vice president.
If a caretaker president takes office, he shall not be entitled to amend the constitution, dissolve the House of Representatives or Senate, or dismiss the government. The caretaker president will also not be allowed to run for president.

Article Involving House of Representatives
The number of the elected MPs is reduced as according to those amendments we are going to have an upper chamber in the parliament.

Egypt’s Constitutional amendments : Passed in the parliament , get ready for referendum starting from Friday

And two –third of Egypt’s parliament passed expectedly on Tuesday those controversial constitutional amendments including one to extend president Abdel Fattah El-Sisi’s presidential term to the year 2030 in Cairo on Wednesday and another one that would give the armed forces the right to interfere in political life to protect the civility of the State.

In numbers: 531 members voted in favor of the new amendments while 22 members voted it against and one member abstained from voting out of 554 MP who came on Tuesday.

The parliament and its MPs 

Here are the names of the 22 members : MP Ehab Mansour , MP Ahmed Tantawy , MP Haitham El-Hariri, MP Faiza Mahmoud , MP Mohamed Abdel Ghani, MP Samir Ghatas , MP Gamal El-Sherif , MP Reda El-Beltagy , MP Mohamed Atta Salim  ,MP Talaat Khalil , MP Abdel Hamid Kamel, MP Mostafa Kamal El-Din Hussein “Yes , the son of the famous Free officer” , MP Salah Abdel Badie ,MP Salah Abdel Bahie, MP Ahmed El-Sharkawy , MP Elhami Againa “since when is he opposing the regime ?” , MP Mohamed El-Atamani, MP Diaa El-Din Dawood, MP Shadeed Abou Hendiya, MP Abu El-Matai Mostafa, MP Akmal Qortam, MP Ahmed El-Bardissi and MP Mohamed Fouad “From New Wafd Party”.

This list is shorter than the list of the 104 MPs that rejected the demarcation agreement between Egypt and Saudi Arabia in June 2017.

Already except for at least three names, 19 MPs are opposed the demarcation agreement.
There are already 596 seats so there are 42 MPs who did not attend the session like MP Khaled Youssef who opposes the constitution and has been in Paris for at least month and a half following his sex scandal.

Now those constitutional amendments will be put to a referendum next week for both Egyptians and Egyptians abroad.
The referendum will be held on 19,20 and 21 April in Egyptian embassies and consulates around the globe for Egyptian expats and 21,22 and 23 April for Egyptians in Egypt.

It will be interesting to see the turnout in the polls because as we have seen that since the Constitution 2014 referendum, there has been a decline in the turnouts in the elections.

The day after the train crash : More victims , More unofficial Mourning, More reactions

Just an hour ago, Egypt’s prosecutor general ordered the detention of six suspects for 4 days pending investigations in the deadly train locomotive crash of Ramses Railways station on Wednesday that killed at least 22 people and injured over 40.

The two train locomotive drivers involved in that fight according to the Prosecutor general’s second statement are among those six suspects.
Unprecedently and interestingly, we found late Wednesday ONTV channel broadcasting an on-air interview exclusively with the crashed locomotive driver who was officially being interrogated by the Prosecution.
I do not recall that this has ever happened before in the media before.

That interview and its timing raised many eyebrows including old Mubarak-era prosecutors and former governors like ex-Governor and former prosecutor Adly Hussein !!
Nevertheless, the interview revealed very interesting information if true.

From Cairo's station on Wednesday
"Ahmed Hassan"

Suspect and locomotive driver Alaa Fathy said that the locomotive was not to be used in the first place and that he was alone driving it when his assistant should be there.
Despite he said that he was not responsible for the accident, he admitted that he did a mistake for not using the brakes to stop the locomotive.
Fathy was too calm and had that smile on his face that made many feel unease.

On Thursday, the prosecution order his blood to be analyzed to see if he was driving under the influence of some substance.
Living in Giza’s Kerdasa and being poor made many Pro-regime supporters accuse Fathy of being an MB member online madly without any proof except as I said “He lives in Kerdasa”

MP Said Hasansin did not waste any time in those 24 hours and presented a bill to “execute negligent train conductors” !!
Most of the MPs blamed the locomotive driver except the very few MPs of the 25-30 bloc above them MP Ahmed El-Tantawy who slammed both the parliament and the president in a very short statement.
I do not have high hopes in El-Tantawy especially he is a Nasserite yet it is not bad to hear a different note in that parliament.
Many people believe that he is a nice décor to show there is an opposition in the parliament.

On the other hand, Egypt’s ministry of health announced the death toll of the accident increased to 22 from 20 on Thursday as two critically injured men passed away in hospital.
The families of the missing people began to report that they found them unfortunately as dead with heartbreaking stories.
Workers and employees at the Station also reported that some of their colleagues are mostly dead and that their bodies are charred under the locomotive.
Back to the media and its circus.

Khaled Youssef’s affair : Women always pay the price in media

Women always pay the price in any sex-related scandal in the world.
It is a fact.

Whether you are in a country classified as a first-world-country or a third-world-country.
There is no difference between the mainstream or social media when it comes to that focus on the women, the one party involved that sex scandal while the other party, the man is completely ignored.

This fact I remember when Khaled Youssef’s sex tapes scandal was unfolded in the past three weeks.
In a quick recap, some sex videos involving Egyptian prominent director and MP Khaled Youssef and a number of women including young actresses hit the internet.

Some concerned citizen, a lawyer filed a complaint at the general prosecution and soon enough Prosecutor General Nabil Sadek began to investigate in the incident.
So far four ladies who reportedly appear in the video clips were arrested including aspiring actors Mona Farouk and Shima El-Hajj.

They are officially accused of prostitution and inciting debauchery and obscenity online.
Their lawyers deny those charges saying that they were legally married to the famous director and member of parliament secretly during the filming of those videos from which was from couple of years ago.

I tried to search and to know if Khaled Youssef is facing any charges but I failed.
Either way, the prosecution should present a request to the House of Representatives to lift Youssef’s parliamentary immunity to investigate him officially.
It is unclear if that has happened or not.

From his side, the MP representing Kafr El-Sheikh’s famous Kafr Shukr constituency in the parliament says that he is paying for his political positions including his complete rejection to the current constitutional amendments.

He says that as someone who had been a member in the committee that drafted the 2014 constitution that the Egyptian people wanted solely a civilian state, not a religious state or an authoritarian state.
"Side remark: I believe as a left-leaning Nasserite he finds it hard to say “Military state” explicitly."

Two facts are clear though: Youssef is in France while the four women who allegedly appeared with him are arrested and detained 15 days pending investigations.
There is no information about who leaked those videos and uploaded them online in a direct violation of the laws specifically the anti-cybercrime and information technology crime law and its articles related to online privacy.

Egypt’s Constitutional amendments 2019 : The Parliament approves preliminarily too quickly

On Thursday, Egypt’s House of Representatives passed in Cairo preliminary the constitutional amendments preliminarily that will allow current President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi to run for more presidential terms.

The amendments which were presented to the parliament by one-fifth of its members, were approved by 485 members out of the 596-seat parliament after two days of discussion only "In a total of ten hours only".

During that preliminary discussion, it was agreed to keep the two constitutional articles related to the National Press Council and the National Media Council after it was originally suggested in the amendments their cancellation.

Egyptian parliament 

Only 17 MPs rejected the amendments and their names are : MP Talaat Khalil , MP Nadia Henry , MP Faiza Mahmoud , MP Samir Ghattas , MP Reda El-Beltagy, MP Gamal El-Sherif , MP Haitham El-Hariri , MP Siyad Abd El-Aal , MP Mohamed El-Attmany , MP Mostafa Kamel El-Din, MP Ahmed El-Sharkawy, MP Mohamed Abdel El-Ghanny , MP Salah Abdel Badie , MP Ahmed El-Bredesy and MP Akmal Kourtam.

I believe it is important to mention their names.

It is worth to mention MP Faiza Mahmoud is a member of the Support Egypt Bloc and yet she voted against the amendments.
She is the only MP from that bloc to do so considering the fact that Support Egypt bloc was the one that represented the petition to amend the constitution in the first place.

Interestingly the leader of Conservatives Party MP Akmal Kourtam was among the MPs who said a big NO in the parliament when the rest of the MPs in his party’s parliamentary bloc said “Yes”.
Kourtam, a former NDP figure had his moment during the discussion of the amendments on Thursday that unfortunately is not recorded officially in the Parliament’s logs.
During his word during the assembly, he had had a nearly verbal fight with other MPs because they were angry of what he said before he left the session.
“The constitutional amendments are aggression,” He said adding those amendments were also a crime against the people and the state institution in Egypt.
Akmal Kourtam led a party known to its support to the army and the regime in general in Egypt since its official and legal launch after the January 2011 revolution.
Since announcing his rejection to the amendments from two weeks, the man has been attacked by Pro-regime media madly.

Still, Kourtam was not the star of the opposition in the parliament during that fast discussion, the new star of the opposition was MP Ahmed Tantawy and his short word in front of the assembly.

Egypt’s Constitutional Amendments 2019 : Too Fast but too quiet in the Media

I am back in town and I can’t believe how to speed the Egyptian House of Representatives is moving when it comes to the upcoming constitutional amendments.
I am trying to catch up what has been happening so fast in the past week.

On Tuesday, the Parliament’s general committee approved the proposed Constitutional amendments presented by one-fifth of the MPs on Sunday.

The amendments if passed by the House of Representatives then approved by the majority of eligible voters in a referendum will not only enable the president to stay in power for another two decades but also enable him to have more control over judiciary as well as enable the army to interfere in the political life constitutionally.

The Egyptian parliament 

I believe any constitutional amendments will take more time for discussions in any parliament’s general committee in the world on any planet in any solar system but we are speaking about Egypt’s current House of Representatives.

Now the House of Representatives will have a final vote on 17 February 2018 and if approved by 2/3 of the MPs then there will be a referendum within 60 days.

The parliament’s biggest bloc “Support Egypt” supports the amendments along with pro-regime parties like “Future of Homeland Party” and “Free Egyptians Party”
Again things are moving fast to the level that I can’t comprehend naively considering we are speaking about alarming constitution amendments.

In the Parliament, 25-30 Bloc is still insisting on its position to reject the Constitutional amendments and I guess some of its prominent members may not stay long in the parliament as I explain later in the post.

Interestingly, the Conservatives Party seems to have a split over the amendments as its leader declared his rejection to the amendments whereas its MPs and other leading figures in the party declared their support.

Egyptian Constitutional amendments 2019 : Let the games begin

And the Egyptian parliament began to pave the away for the upcoming Constitutional amendments.

Without waiting for the Urgent matters court to say its word, more than one fifth of the MPs in the House of Representatives presented a written petition to the Speaker of the House Ali Abdel Aal on Saturday to amend Constitution 2014.

On Sunday , the general committee of the parliament issued a statement about the main issues involving the proposed amendments officially.

So far the 15 major articles that are going to be amended are related to Presidential terms “6 years for two presidential terms instead of four” , creating a parliamentary quota for women and Christians, the procedures to appoint the minister of defense , the military courts for civilians.

There are going to be at least 10 new articles to be added including creating a vice-president position , a Shura council , special quotas for women,a judiciary coordinating committee headed by the President.

The general committee of the parliament will continue discussing the proposed amendments on Tuesday.

Most of those MPs that presented the petition, if not all of them are members of Pro-regime “Support Egypt” bloc

Interestingly , I can’t find any serious article enforcing the freedoms or guarantees that it would be turned in to one man show constitutionally in the proposed articles as article 226 of the current constitution stipulates.

The article is crystal clear.

“In all cases, texts pertaining to the re-election of the president of the republic or the principles of freedom and equality stipulated in this Constitution may not be amended, unless the amendment brings more guarantees.”

I knew about that move since last week but I did not imagine that the process would be so fast.

I will be out of town with limited access online this week.

Amending Constitution in 2019 : More quiet rejection

The calls for amending the 2014 Constitutions have not stopped, nor did the calls standing against those proposed constitutional amendments.
On Wednesday, “25-30” parliamentary bloc declared that its total rejection for any attempt to amend the current constitution.
On 13 January 2019, The Civil Democratic Movement issued a statement rejecting “the attempts to mess with the constitution”.
“We all know that the main declared reason for those calls [to amend the constitution] is to return back to that phase we believed that passed by the revolution [25 January] and turned over its page forever and that is the one-man and dictatorship rule that destroys the state institution and turns the ruler in to a god” said the statement of the centrist and leftist opposition parties coalition declaring their total refusal.

The Civil Democratic Movement includes the Egyptian Social Democratic Party, Karama Party, The Constitution Party, The Popular Socialist Alliance Party, The Bread and Freedom Party, Egypt Freedom Party and El-Adl Party.
As usual, the mainstream media ignored both statements and the social media did not know about it in the first place.

Amending the Egyptian Constitution in 2019 : More details and More reactions

Do you remember what I told you in early December 2018 that there is a plan to amend the Egyptian Constitution in 2019 and we began to see its prelude in front of the court?

Well two days before the end of 2018 , close to presidency journalist and Akhbar Al-Youm editor in chief Yasser Rizk wrote  in his weekly column about “how the new year should be the year of political reform {after the successful economic reform}” and that this reform should be focused on one thing: amending the constitution.

According to Rizk, the 2014 constitution is full of flaws about them the limitation of the presidential terms and how the parliament got so-called bigger power than the president and the government.

The editor in chief and CEO of Egypt's second biggest state-owned newspaper says that the parliament should return to be two chambers , Egypt should have a full presidential political system with open presidential terms, the return of information ministry and bunch of other amendments including the cancellation of “transitional justice” section in the constitution because it opens the doors for “reconciliation with the Muslim Brotherhood”.

Almost all the amendments Mr. Rizk proposed in his column would turn the 2014 constitution into Mubarak’s own version of 1971 constitution.

One constitution for all Egyptians banner in Tahrir square once upon a time 

Now being realistically enough, he suggested that if the amendments idea failed, then the regime should establish some Supreme council to protect “the values of the 30 June Revolution” headed by El-Sisi for the rest of his life to make sure that the “30 June Revolution” achieve its goals.

I do not know if that Supreme council idea was inspired by the current Supreme Council of Islamic Revolution of Iran or what but its idea actually bothers more than amending the constitution.
I love how he completely ignores the 25 January revolution.

In his column this week, Yasser Rizk said that what he had mentioned a week earlier was the child of his own thoughts and that he was not dictated by higher orders bragging that he created a “tsunami” in the media.

The thing is that what he had mentioned as his own suggestions were previously mentioned in Mada Masr’s own exclusive report about those future constitutional amendments.

It seems that we are going to have constitutional amendments in Egypt : Voters be ready in 2019 !!

Earlier Friday, we found out that Egypt’s Urgent Matter Court scheduled a hearing 23 December 2018 to demand the parliament to look into a lawsuit demanding constitutional amendments that will cancel the presidential terms limits officially.

A ballot box at a polling station in Giza during the
Constitution referendum in 2012

The news was originally published by Egypt’s Official State-owned News agency MENA and according to it, a bunch of concerned citizens from lawyers “they are always good citizens” want to amend article No.140 of Current Egyptian Constitution that limit the presidential terms to two four-years-terms in the office.

Those citizens want to change the article because they want to re-elect current president Abdel Fattah El-Sisi from here to eternity as long as “the public wants it”.
Article No. 140 stipulates the following :

The President of the Republic shall be elected for a period of four calendar years, commencing from the day following the termination of the term of his predecessor. The President may only be reelected once.

I did not support or vote even for that constitution as I was so sick during its referendum but I have to say that this was one of its best articles.
According to article No.226, the articles of the constitution can be amended by the request of the president or one-fifth of the MPs in the House of the Representatives and that request must be discussed within 30 days.

The amendment of one or more of the Constitution articles may be requested by the President of the Republic or one-fifth of the members of the House of Representatives. The request specifies the articles to be amended and the reasons for the amendments. In all cases, the House of Representatives will debate the request within 30 days from the date of its receipt. The House issues its decision to accept the request in whole or in part by a majority of its members. If the request is rejected, the same amendments may not be requested again before the next legislative term. If the amendment request is approved by the House, it discusses the text of the articles to be amended within 60 days from the date of approval. If approved by a two-thirds majority of the House’s members, the amendment is put to public referendum within 30 days from the date of approval. The amendment is effective from the date on which the referendum’s result and the approval of a valid majority of the participants in the referendum are announced.

The argument of those who want to amend it and to change to infinity and beyond is that Presidents like El-Sisi don’t have enough presidential terms in hard times “that never ends in our place in the worlds”.
Some say that we must have it like the French “5 years” but ironically the French presidents also have only two concessive presidential terms.
I do not need to remind them the President of the United States aka, the leader of the Free world and the West only has got two presidential terms.

This is not the first time we got calls in Egypt to “unlimit” the presidential terms constitutionally if you remember last year but this time it seems really serious especially with that lawsuit and media campaigns as well the parliamentarians leading for public campaigns as well.