Egypt’s parliament is set to amend some articles of the House of Representatives law during the fourth legislative round.
Member of the committee of constitutional and legislative affairs Mohamed Salem said that the parliament is still awaiting the receipt of the law’s amendments draft from the cabinet.
The legislative committee headed by Baha Abo Shoqa will be assigned to work on the law.
“There are some ‘inflexible’ articles that are hindering the democratic practices,” Salem said, noting that the amendments proposed, are in line with the changes expected to be applied in parliament soon.
He added that the parliament’s electoral system is one of these amendments, explaining that there are demands to increase the number of parliament members, drawn from absolute closed lists to compromise 75% of the total parliament, and decrease parliamentary seats from individual candidate lists to 25%, contrary to the current parliamentary election law, where out the 540 parliament members are elected, 420 drawn from individual candidate lists, while 120 are from absolute closed lists.
“The new amendments will be preceded by a social dialogue, to find a good final formula for the electoral system, and avoid any constitutional aberration,” Salem said.
Meanwhile, another member of the committee, Mostafa Bakry, suggested 50% for the individual candidates. and 50% for the list candidates, to ensure equality among members, and to avoid monopolisation.
The law was issued in 2014 by former Interim President Adly Mansour. Later in 2015, the parliamentary election took place, resulting in a parliament where 57% of the members are independents, and the remainder are party-affiliated members.
Egypt’s current parliament is composed of 596 members, marking the highest number in the country’s 150-year-old parliamentary history. A total of 448 are elected as independents, 120 as lists, and 28 are appointed by the president. However, during past years some have witnessed their membership suspended due to violations.
