People's Assembly of Egypt

Egyptian People's Assembly مجلس الشعب المصري Magles El-Sha'b El-Masri
Type
Type	Lower House
Leadership
Speaker	Saad El-Katatny, Freedom and Justice Party since 23 January 2012
Deputy Speaker	Ashraf Thabet, Al-Nour Party
Deputy Speaker	Abdul-Aleim Dawood, Wafd Party
Structure
Members	508
Political groups	Democratic Alliance (235)   Islamist Bloc (123)   New Wafd (38)   Egyptian Bloc (34)   Ex-NDP parties (18)   al-Wasat (10)   Reform and Development (9)   The Revolution Continues (9)   Justice (1)   Independents (21)   Presidential appointees (10)
Elections
Last election	11 January 2012
Meeting place
Egyptian People's Assembly, Cairo, Egypt
Website
http://www.parliament.gov.eg

Egypt

This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Egypt

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The People's Assembly (Arabic: Maglis Al-Sha’ab‎ مجلس الشعب) is the lower house of Egypt's bicameral parliament. In spite of its lower status, however, it plays a more important role in drafting legislation and day-to-day legislative duties than the Shura Council, the upper house. The Assembly chose the members of the Constituent Assembly of Egypt.

Formation of the Assembly

The Constitution states that the law shall determine the number of the People's Assembly elected members, provided that it is not less than 350 members. The Assembly is made up of 508 deputies, 498 of whom are directly elected while the remaining 10 are appointed by the President of the Republic. It also stipulated that at least one half of the members should be workers and farmers. The Assembly sits for a five-year term but can be dissolved earlier by the president. All seats are voted on in each election. Law No. 206 for 1990 determined that the number of constituencies shall be 222, with two members each, provided that one of whom at least should be a farmer or a worker. The People's Assembly members are elected by absolute majority of legitimate votes cast.

The People's Assembly may demand the resignation of the cabinet by voting a motion of censure. For this reason, the Prime Minister and his cabinet are necessarily from the dominant party or coalition in the Assembly. When the president and assembly come from opposing parties (a situation which did arise historically, but not since the 1970s), this would lead to the situation known as cohabitation. While motions of censure are periodically proposed by the opposition following government actions that it deems highly inappropriate, these are purely rhetorical; party discipline ensures that, throughout a parliamentary term, the government is never overthrown by the Assembly.

Powers

The People's Assembly has various competences stated in Chapter Five of the Constitution. According to article 86 the People's Assembly shall undertake:

• Legislation
• Review and approval of agreements and treaties
• Review and approval of the State plan and budget
• Oversight of the work of the Executive
• Discussion of the President of the Republic's statement and the government program
• Amendments to the Constitution
• Approval of declarations of war and emergency

People's Assembly organization

Speaker of the People's Assembly

The People's Assembly Speaker (PA Speaker) presides over the Assembly and is elected from the Assembly membership, along with 2 deputies during the first session of the season. The Speaker's role in session is to keep the peace and order to the parliamentary session, take part in discussion provided that he gives up his presidency to one of his deputies and doesn't return to his presidency until the discussion is finished as well as ordering an emergency session for one of the Assembly's committees. In case of vacancy in the President's office, the Speaker serves as acting president until the presidential elections are held (Which must be within 60 days). This has happened once, when president Anwar Sadat was assassinated in office, and then People's Assembly Speaker, Sufi Abu Taleb served as acting president. The last PA Speaker was Dr. Ahmad Fathi Sorour, a long-time serving former parliamentarian and politician who had been speaker from 1991 to the dissolution of parliament during the 2011 Egyptian Revolution.

Speaker's Staff Office

The Staff is responsible for organization of the assembly's and its committees' agendas, the enforcement of the Assembly's orders and is the link between the Assembly and different agencies, ministries and other authorities. The staff consists of the PA speaker and his two deputies.

Assembly's General Committee

This committee is formed in the beginning of the Assembly's annual season, headed by the Speaker. Its membership includes the Deputy Speakers, representatives of the political parties' parliamentary committees, and five Assembly members (of whom one is an independent, if there are more than ten independents). The Speaker is responsible for outlining the committee's agenda. The committee is responsible for discussing the general issues put forward by the president, the prime minister or the speaker.

Specialized Committees

These 18 committees are:

• Constitutional and Legislation Affairs Committee
• Budget and Planning Committee
• Economical Affairs Committee
• Foreign Relations Committee
• Arab Affairs Committee
• Defense, National Security and Mobilization Committee
• Proposals and Complaints Committee
• Religious, Social and Religious Endowments (Awkaf) Affairs Committee
• Health and Environmental Affairs Committee
• Transportation and Telecommunications Committee
• Housing, Public Utilities and Reconstruction Committee
• Local Government and Public Organizations Committee
• Youth Committee
• Manpower Committee
• Industry and Energy Committee
• Agriculture and Irrigation Committee
• Education and Scientific Research Committee
• Culture, Information and Tourism Committee

Ethics Committee

This committee is formed in the beginning of the Assembly's annual season, headed by one of the PA speaker deputies. The membership includes the heads of the following committees: Constitutional Affairs and Legislation; Religious, Social and Awkaf Affairs; and Suggestions and Grievances; five members of the General Committee (of whom at least two are from the opposition parties); and five members chosen randomly from the Assembly. This committee is responsible for looking into the violations committed by Assembly members towards the Egyptian society's code of behavior towards religion, social standards, etc.

Ad hoc & Combined Committees

The ad-hoc committees are formed by the suggestion of the Speaker or the request of the government to study, debate on a new bill or law, voting on the ratification of a new law or bill or a special issue of concern. The Speaker is responsible on choosing members for this committee. The Combined committees are formed by the request of the Speaker, the government, members of two or more of the specialized committees, with the aim of studying a particular issue of concern. These combined committees are headed by one of the Speaker's deputies. The orders of these committees are issued when a majority vote is achieved.

Parliamentary Chapter

The Egyptian People's Assembly is the Egyptian representative of the international parliamentary conventions. This chapter aims at developing of mutual relations with international parliaments. The General Assembly of this chapter consists of the entire membership of the Assembly, and headed by the Speaker. The Executive committee of this chapter of the Speaker staff office, three members chosen from the Assembly membership of whom at least one is a member of the opposition parties. The Assembly meets in its chapter form every January. Emergency sessions are held by the request of the executive committee to look into any of additionally outlined issues of concern.

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Elections

2011

Sources:Ahram Online,^[1] Al-Masry Al-Youm,^[2] Al-Ahram^[3]

2010

e • d Summary of the 2010 People's Assembly of Egypt election results

Parties	Votes	%	2010 Seats	2005 Seats	Net Change	Seats %
National Democratic Party (Al'Hizb Al Watani Al Democrati)			420	330	90	81.0%
Independents (NDP)[6]			53	0	53	10.2%
New Wafd Party (Hizb al-Wafd-al-Jadid)			6	5	1	1.1%
Progressive National Unionist Party (Hizb al Tagammo' al Watani al Taqadommi al Wahdawi)			5	1	4	0.9%
Tomorrow Party (Hizb al-Ghad)			1	1	0	0.2%
Arab Democratic Nasserist Party or Nasserist Party			0	0	0	0.0%
Liberal Party (Hizb al-Ahrar)			0	0	0	0.0%
Social Justice Party (Hizb Al-'Adala al- Ijtima'iyya)			1	-	1	0.2%
Democratic Generation Party (Hizb El-Geel al-Democrati)			1	-	1	0.2%
Democratic Peace Party (Hizb El-Salaam al-Democrati)			1	-	1	0.2%
Independents (Muslim Brotherhood - al-ikhwān al-muslimūn)			1	88	−87	0.2%
Independents (other)			15	19	4
Still in contest			4
Unelected members			10	0	0	1.9%
Total (turnout  %)			518

The People's Assembly was dissolved on February 2, 2011.

See also

• List of Speakers of the People's Assembly of Egypt

References

External links

• Official Website

Coordinates: 30°02′24″N 31°14′12″E / 30.04007°N 31.23658°E / 30.04007; 31.23658