Sisi approves Parliament bylaws
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has issued a decree approving the Parliament’s bylaws, thus putting them into effect, the state-owned Middle East News Agency reported Monday.
After hotly debating several articles that determine the Parliament’s internal dynamics and power structure, the legislative body sent its draft of the bylaws to the president for approval on March 30.
Legal and Legislative Affairs Minister Magdy al-Agaty said now that the bylaws have been approved, the Parliament will start voting on its permanent committees, the state-owned newspaper Al-Ahram reported. Members of Parliament (MPs) had formed 19 temporary committees in January to complete the revision of the hundreds of laws Sisi issued prior to the parliamentary elections.
Drafting the bylaws stirred divisive internal tensions, with 100 MPs suspending their participation in the process at one point, accusing Parliamentary Speaker Ali Abdel Aal of running the sessions with a bias toward the state-aligned Alliance to Support Egypt coalition and manipulating the vote in their favor.
The most contentious article sets the minimum membership for a parliamentary coalition to be formed at 25 percent of all MPs. Opposition blocks strongly objected to this percentage, arguing that it eliminates their chances of forming coalitions.
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