Streets surrounding the Egyptian parliament are still closed off after the legislative body convened last week for its first session in three years. A quick halt on live broadcasts cast a shadow over the newly elected parliament dominated by parties that support President Al-Sisi amidst claims that the elections were fixed by Al-Sisi’s government.
On the evening of January 9, civil protection forces built a street-wide rolling iron gate that moved along a towering cement wall surrounding the newly elected legislature that is tasked with reviewing 340 laws in only 15 days.
Streets surrounding the Egyptian parliament are still closed off after the legislative body convened last week for its first session in three years. A quick halt on live broadcasts cast a shadow over the newly elected parliament dominated by parties that support President Al-Sisi amidst claims that the elections were fixed by Al-Sisi’s government.
On the evening of January 9, civil protection forces built a street-wide rolling iron gate that moved along a towering cement wall surrounding the newly elected legislature that is tasked with reviewing 340 laws in only 15 days.
At his first press conference after being elected as the Speaker of the Parliament, Ali Abdel Aal said the decision to stop live broadcasting was due to crises in the session’s procedures, which he said he would not be able to tolerate. A member of the pro-Sisi ‘Egypt’s Support’ coalition, Abdel Aal was elected speaker by the end of the first day, scoring the votes of 441 out of 585 members.
‘Egypt’s Support’ has 370 deputies, both partisan and independent and was coordinated by former intelligence officer Sameh Seif el Yazal, who adopted a call for extending the President’s term in the Constitution.
Claims of a rigged election
A few days before the parliament re-convened, a deputy from ‘Egypt’s Support’ who has a private channel claimed that Homeland Security and General Intelligence Directors (GID) are managing politics in Egypt with instructions from a major general who runs the president’s office.
Coordinator of Al-Sisi’s youth committee in his presidential campaign, Hazem Abdel Azim, also said on Facebook that Egypt’s Support was “fabricated” by GID to ensure they won two-thirds of the seats.
President of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party, an opposition party, Mohamed Abou El-Ghar told Al-Watan newspaper that the current parliament was tailored to fit a specific group, and accused the security forces of shattering the lists competing with ‘Egypt’s Support’ whose members are described as having been “appointed by a check.”
Parliamentary elections witnessed low participation of only 28.3% even though Prime Minister Sherif Ismail had granted government workers a holiday to encourage them to vote. Youth participation was low as well.
15 days unrealistic
According to Article 156 of the 2014 Constitution, the first task of the parliament will be to pass the laws (in 15 days) issued by current President Al-Sisi and former President Adly Mansour since 30 June 2013. These include 340 laws issued in the three-year absence of the parliament.
President Al-Sisi issued 289 laws (including 15 not yet published in the Official Gazette) since he took power in June 2014.
Civil society has many demands
Civil society organisations, including Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, made specific recommendations on nine topics they believe should be on top of the parliament’s agenda: Abolishment of the Anti-terrorism law and the Terrorist Entities law, as well as removing all provisions that expand the criminalisation of fundamental freedoms such as freedom of expression or the right to peaceful gathering.
The death of Popular Alliance Party member Shaimaa al-Sabbagh, during a demonstration organized by the party on the fourth anniversary of the 25 January revolution, was a harsh reminder of the government’s harsh enforcement of the 2013 protest law.
Organisations also called on the parliament to strengthen the independency of the judiciary by amending the Criminal Code and the Judicial Authority Law in order to ensure financial and administrative autonomy of the judiciary and by abolishing the tutelage of the Ministry of Justice as a part of the legislative power in all matters relating to delegations, transportations, promotions, pensions and inspections of the judges and transferring all those to the Supreme Judicial Council.
Non-governmental organisations, apart from demanding more transparency in tax laws, recommended that the parliament ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and that Egypt should declare its commitment to Article 21 and 22 of this convention that entitles the Egyptians, as well as any state party, to lodge complaints if the Egyptian government violates its obligations thereto.
