Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi issued, on Tuesday, a list of the 53 appointed members in the newly elected Senate, in accordance with Constitution.
Under Egypt’s Constitution, two-thirds of the 300-seat Senate are to be elected via individual candidate and closed party list poll systems, with the rest appointed by the President.
The Senate, which was created in accordance with constitutional amendments approved last year, will act as an advisory chamber to the House of Representatives. It will sit in place of the Shura Council, the former upper house of parliament that was dissolved in 2014.
The members appointed by the President include the heads of some newspaper, such as Al-Masry Al-Youm CEO Abdel-Moneim Said, Editor-in-Chief of Shorouk newspaper Emad El-Din Hussein, Editor-in-Chief of Al-Ahram Al-Riyadi Mohamad Shabanah, and Editor-in-Chief of Al-Watan newspaper Mahmoud Moslim.
Regarding syndicates, the president appointed the former Head of the Lawyers Syndicate Sameh Ashour, Head of the Teachers Syndicate Khalaf Al-Zinati, Head of the Media Syndicate Tarek Saada, as well as former Minister of Education Moheb Al-Rafi’i.
Other presidential selections include, leader of the leftist Tagammou Party El-Sayed Abdel-Aal, former leader of the Wafd Party Bahaa Abu Shoqaa, as well as Hoda Abdel-Nasser, the daughter of late president Gamal Abdel-Nasser. President Al-Sisi appointed prominent actors, including Yahia El-Fakharany and Samira Abdel-Aziz, to the Senate.
Counsellor Mahmoud Ismail, Acting Secretary General of the Senate, confirmed that the Senate’s inaugural session will be held on 18 October. He said that the session is expected to witness the election of the Speaker, as well as the formation of a committee to prepare the Senate’s bylaws following the Bureau’s election.
Ismail added that the Senate bylaws will be issued into a draft law, which requires its presentation to the House of Representatives for approval, before its submission to President Al-Sisi for issuance.
Ismail said that the Senate’s session chair, who will be the oldest member, will be announced shortly after Al-Sisi’s decision to appoint the 100 members to the Senate.
Following the conclusion of elections on 16 September, the Senate’s first five-year term will end in 2025. Pro-government Mostaqbal Watan (Future of the Homeland) Party candidates won the majority, or about 70% of the 200 open seats, followed by the People’s Republican Party who won six seats. The Wafd Party won six seats, with independent candidates also winning six seats.
The El-Tagammu, Congress, Modern Egypt, Reform and Development, Guardians of the Nation, the National Movement, and the Egyptian Social Democratic Party parties took the remaining seats.
