Egypt Inaugurates new parliament

Three years after the last Egypt’s parliament was dissolved, the country has inaugurated a newly constituted parliament. The old parliament was dissolved in July 2013, after former President, Mohammed Morsi was ousted.

After a recent heated parliamentary election, the 596 elected members of the house would be expected to reach a consensus on more than 330 laws.

According to Egypt’s constitution, Article 156 stipulates that in the absence of a parliament, the president can issue decrees that has the full backing of the law.

However, the body is to choose a speaker on its first day and has 15 days to approve numerous laws issued by executive decrees during the period of its suspension.

The new members swore the constitutional oath, “I swear to God, the great, that I will faithfully protect the republican regime, and that I will respect the constitution and law and that I will completely attend to people’s needs and that I will protect the country’s independence and the unity and peace of its lands.”

Constitutional jurist Essam al-Islambouli said, as stated in the parliament’s legislative schedule, presidential decrees would first be reviewed by the MPs then discussed before finally being put up for approval.

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“The best solution is that these decree laws, after being discussed, be distributed among the various special parliament committees to be reviewed, each according to its field of specialization,” There are 19 parliamentary committees.

Egypt’s last parliament was elected in 2011-2012 in the country’s first free election but a court dissolved the body in mid- 2012 on the grounds that the election laws at the time were unconstitutional.

A year later, Morsi of the Brotherhood was overthrown by the army led by Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. The new parliament which will be dominated by alliance loyal to President Sisi , has 568 elected members and 28 appointed by him.