Egypt's President Mohamed Morsi (Photo: Reuters)
President Mohamed Morsi has announced the end of the 32nd session of the Shura Council, Egypt’s upper house of parliament.
The 33rd session will begin on Wednesday.
Earlier this week, the presidency announced the names of 90 members of the Shura Council, chosen by President Morsi according to his constitutional prerogatives, to fill one third of the 270-member body.
The Shura Council will take over the power to issue laws, currently in the hands of the president, once the constitution is approved. The final results of the two-phase referendum on the draft constitution will be announced on Tuesday.
The council is expected to discuss the law regulating political rights on which the next elections of the lower house of parliament will be based. The parliamentary elections will be held in two months.
The council will send the law to the High Constitutional Court to decide on its constitutionality.
A number of prominent figures are among those appointed, including the deputy head of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party Essam El-Erian, former head of the military judiciary Adel El-Morsi, American University in Cairo professor Mona Makram Ebeid, and former MP Ramy Lakah.
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