Speaker of Egypt's parliament Ali Abdel-Aal told reporters on Monday that the government is not obliged to submit its resignation following the end of the parliamentary elections this month.
"We do not have any articles in the constitution that stipulate that the government should submit resignation at the end of parliamentary elections or before a new parliament is elected," said Abdel-Aal, adding that "the constitution (Article 146) states that it is the president of the republic who has the full authority to appoint a new government at any time."
However, Abdel-Aal said that once a new parliament is elected, the government might choose to deliver a policy statement before the House of Representatives to shed light on its policies in the coming stage.
Abdel-Aal made the comments as he was casting his ballot in the run-off stage of the parliamentary elections at the polling station in the Eastern Cairo district of Nasr City.
Abdel-Aal said that Egypt's parliamentary elections, which kicked off last October, have proved a historic success.
"Despite the coronavirus pandemic, Egypt was able to hold parliamentary elections to show that it is up to meeting all kinds of challenges," said Abdel-Aal.
He said that the army and security forces played a big role in safeguarding parliamentary elections, "but the Egyptian people are the real heroes because they were keen to exercise their voting rights in spite of any difficulties," said Abdel-Aal.
Abdel-Aal described the outgoing parliament as an institution that came at a very exceptional time.
"It came during a very difficult transitional period and was able to pass a large number of legislations that were important to restore stability in Egypt," said Abdel-Aal.
He added that the number of young people will increase in the coming parliament.
"They will play a big role in passing legislation and exercising supervision over the government," said Abdel-Aal.
Abdel-Aal said he expects that the new parliament, which will hold its meetings after 9 January 2021, will focus on discussing a number of important laws such as the law on the Senate's internal bylaws and the law regulating the performance of local councils.
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