“Your supervision of the government’s performance is as important as your examination of draft laws. As MPs, you must engage in supervision that balances the public interest with achieving the separation of powers,” Parliament Speaker Hisham Badawi told MPs during parliament’s opening procedural session this week.
Badawi said that the legislative duty of the House of Representatives, the lower house of Egypt’s parliament, is inseparable from its oversight role, stressing that exercising oversight over the government is entrusted to MPs with the duty of balanced objectivity without exaggeration or negligence.
He called MPs to “be the voice of citizens, express their will, study their problems, and strive to solve them”.
Badawi, a former chairman of the Central Auditing Agency, was one of 28 MPs appointed by President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi to Egypt’s new parliament. The fact that it is the first time a House speaker has been appointed and not elected has sparked widespread controversy among political analysts.
Abdel-Nasser Qandil, an expert on Egypt’s parliamentary life, said that appointing a MP as speaker may negatively impact the House’s performance and independence.
Another negative development, according to Qandil, is the election of Assem Al-Gazzar, a former housing minister, as the House’s first deputy speaker, while seven former cabinet ministers, such as former foreign minister Sameh Shoukri, former oil minister Tarek Al-Molla and former agriculture minister Al-Sayed Al-Qusseir, were also elected chairs of committees.
Qandil believes that former cabinet ministers may represent an extension of the executive authority within the parliament, which may lead to their being a voice of the government instead of a voice of the parliament to the executive.
“Previous experience shows that the performance of some committees in the outgoing parliament was not up to proper standards of efficiency and most of the time was characterised by a tendency in favour of securing the interests of the government,” Qandil said.
He argued that parliament’s increasing reliance on former government and judicial officials raises concerns about the new House’s independence and its ability to effectively perform its oversight and legislative roles.
“This could weaken the separation of powers and make parliament subservient to the executive,” he said.
He stressed the importance of reviewing the performance of the new chairs of parliamentary committees on a yearly basis, and if the desired results are not achieved it would be necessary to elect new ones in parliament’s next session.
Al-Ahram political analyst Amr Hashem Rabie also raised concerns about the fact that MPs affiliated with Egypt’s four major pro-regime political parties — Mostaqbal Watan (Future of Homeland), Homat Watan (Protectors of the Homeland), the National Front, and the People’s Republican — have taken control of the remaining 18 parliamentary committees.
“ I expect that the performance of parliamentary committees will be mainly bureaucratic and will fall short of exercising the House’s supervisory powers in order not to embarrass the government,” Rabie said.
Statistics show that Mostaqbal Watan-affiliated MPs are the chairs of 12 committees in the new House, constituting around 50 per cent of the total. “This means that having emerged as the leading parliamentary bloc, Mostaqbal Watan will effectively control parliamentary business for the next five years like it did in the previous House,” Rabie said.
Hashem noted that three female MPs — Sahar Talaat Mustafa, Thoraya Ahmed Al-Badawi, and Randa Mustafa — were elected chairs of the three committees of tourism, media and culture, and social solidarity.
“This is another negative development, as the matter is not related to gender or profession, but rather to the competence of MPs in general and how far they are able to exercise their legislative and oversight roles,” Rabie said.
Now that the new House is ready for business, observers are speculating about the fate of Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouli’s government.
TV talk shows have been abuzz throughout the week with reports about an imminent cabinet reshuffle. MP and journalist Mustafa Bakri said that 80 per cent of cabinet ministers will be reshuffled in the next few days and that a new government will be announced ahead of parliament’s next sitting.
The new House concluded the election of its speaker and the chairs of its 25 committees on 14 January before adjourning its sessions indefinitely.
Parliament Speaker Badawi told MPs that they would be notified of the next sittings a few days in advance. This, according to Bakri, means that there will be a cabinet reshuffle ahead of the House’s next sittings.
Regarding the question of whether Madbouli will stay in office, Bakri said there is a strong possibility that he will leave. He added that “the name of the new prime minister will be a big surprise to all”.
On Tuesday, Badawi held a meeting with Madbouli to discuss coordination between the House and the government.
Bakri believes that after six years in office, Madbouli’s government should go because it has run out of steam. “Madbouli is a technocrat who has stayed in office for a long time, and everyone believes that he has nothing new to contribute to the country following the election of a new parliament,” Bakri said.
It is expected that as many as 20 cabinet ministers will be changed, he said, noting that “the change will primarily concern the economy portfolios.”
“People need new faces with economic expertise to tackle their difficult daily living conditions, control inflation, and cut the foreign debt,” Bakri said.
Senator and head of the Free Egyptians Party Essam Khalil said that global changes, both political and economic, necessitate the formation of a new government in Egypt, especially after the formation of a new parliament.
He added that change has become a necessity so that a new government with new policies can be presented to parliament at the beginning of its first legislative season.
Other observers like Magdi Morshed, deputy president of the Congress Party, do not believe that the election of a new parliament should be followed by the selection of a new prime minister.
“This approach cannot be relied upon, especially since there are no constitutional or legal texts that obligate the president to form a new government after the election of a new House of Representatives,” Morshed said.
Article 164 of Egypt’s 2014 constitution stipulates that the president name a prime minister to form the government and present its policy programmme to the House of Representatives.
If that government does not secure the confidence of a majority of MPs within 30 days, the president shall name a prime minister nominated by the party or coalition that holds the majority of seats, the constitution says.
Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mahmoud Fawzi told reporters that regardless of whether the Madbouli government remains in office or not, a lot of draft laws will be on the agenda of the new parliament in its first year.
“There will be a legislative agenda resulting from the coordination between the government and parliament,” Fawzi said, revealing that “Madbouli will hold a meeting with the concerned ministers to draft the new agenda for the laws that will be presented to parliament.”
Fawzi indicated that the government had presented its policy programme to parliament in July 2024 after a cabinet reshuffle and that it had gained the confidence of the House of Representatives.
“So, the government’s gaining the confidence of parliament only comes if a new cabinet is formed,” he said.
Fawzi said amendments to the laws regarding competition, traffic, and property taxes are expected to be at the top of the government’s legislative agenda in the new parliament.
“The government is also preparing a draft law to regulate the circulation of data and information, in order to achieve a balance between transparency, providing information, protecting confidential data, and enhancing the ability to counter rumours and fake news,” he said.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 22 January, 2026 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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