Egypt's Sisi asks new House of Representatives to convene 1st legislative session Tuesday
Ahram Online, , Friday 8 Jan 2021
The opening session will be chaired by prominent writer Farida El-Shobashy, as the eldest member in the House


Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has asked the new House of Representatives to convene and begin its first legislative session on Tuesday.

According to a presidential decree published in the Official State Gazette on Thursday, the parliament's first legislative session will begin on Tuesday, 12 January at 11am.

The five-year term of Egypt’s outgoing House of Representatives (2016-2021) concludes on 9 January.

The opening session of the new House of Representatives will be chaired by prominent writer Farida El-Shobashy, as the eldest member in the House, according to Mahmoud Fawzi, the House’s secretary-general.

El-Shobashy will be aided by two deputies, MPs Fatma Ahmed and Abanoub Ezzat, as the youngest members of the House.

The session will see MPs take the constitutional oath and the election of a new speaker.

El-Sisi also named 28 presidential appointees in the 596-member legislative chamber, including prominent public figures, football players, among others.

A total of 540 newly elected MPs visited parliament at the end of December to receive their membership cards.

Several MPs who died after the conclusion of the parliamentary elections in December - some due to the complications of the coronavirus - are set to be replaced by reserve candidates in the case of party lists, or by-elections for individual candidate replacements.

Egypt’s two-stage parliamentary elections were held between 24 October and 8 December.

The pro-government Mostaqbal Watan Party swept the polls, gaining 315 seats (53 percent).

Mostaqbal Watan’s coalition with other political parties gave it a comfortable majority of 75 percent in the new parliament.

Leftist MPs told reporters they will seek to form an opposition bloc in an attempt to offer a counterbalance to the pro-government majority.

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