Some political parties said they were preparing to compete in new parliamentary elections over two seats now vacant the parliament.
This comes as the Supreme Electoral Committee announced Thursday that it will receive candidates’ applications from 7 to 13 March. Elections will take place in April.
According to state-media, the committee was notified by parliament speaker Ali Abdul Aal of two vacant seats. The first one is vacant due to the resignation of Mohamed Ali Moselhi in mid-February to join the cabinet as Minister of Supply and Internal Trading.
The second seat is vacant since the parliament voted at the end of February to revoke the membership of Mohamed Anwar Al-Sadat on grounds of committing violations.
According to local media reports, new elections are expected to include candidates from the Free Egyptians and Conference parties.
Since its election at the end of 2015 and its official inauguration in January 2016, the parliament has seen a significant turnover among parliament members.
Reasons varied between deaths, resignations, and dismissals. The first resignation attempt took place only two days after the parliament first convened.
Member of parliament (MP) Kamal Ahmed had submitted his resignation on 12 January 2016 after losing the position of speaker to Abdul Aal, although he cited health reasons. The parliament first rejected his resignation, but by March Ahmed was penalised after he threw a shoe at a colleague during a session, being banned from attending sessions for the first legislative year.
On 21 February, the parliament accepted the resignation of MP Serry Seyam, who was also a candidate for the position of speaker and was among the members appointed by President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi—according to the legal quota entitling him to appoint up to five percent of parliamentary members.
The MP whom Ahmed threw a shoe at was Tawfik Okasha. Okasha faced accusations of violating parliamentary regulations and saw his membership revoked by a majority of two-third votes on 2 March 2016.
Several MPs also died during the first parliamentary year in 2016. On 4 April, MP Sameh Seif El-Yazal passed away. El-Yazal was a key player in the election for leading the majority coalition known as ‘Egypt’s Support.’ Also in April, MP Mostafa El-Khouly died. On 12 July, MP Sayed Farrag passed away. On 9 October, MP Amira Refaat died in a road accident.
Meanwhile, MP Ahmed Mortada Mansour’s membership was annulled by the Cassation Court in July, in favour of candidate Amr El-Shobaky. However, to date, the parliament has failed to abide by the court ruling in violation of the constitution.
The last dismissal of a parliamentary member was a majority vote pushing Mohamed Anwar Al-Sadat out, after investigations between November 2016 and February 2017 resulted in him being charged with several violations, including reaching out to foreign entities on internal affairs.
