House of Representatives (Egypt)

House of Representatives مجلس النواب Maǧlis an-Nowwab

Type
Type	Unicameral
Leadership
Speaker	Ali Abdel Aal, Independent (Support Egypt) Since 10 January 2016
Deputy Speaker	Mahmoud El Sherif, Independent (Support Egypt) Since 11 January 2016
Deputy Speaker	Suleiman Wahdan, New Wafd Party Since 11 January 2016
Structure
Seats	596^[1]

Political groups	Free Egyptians Party: 65 seats Nation's Future Party: 53 seats New Wafd Party: 36 seats Homeland Defenders Party: 18 seats Republican People’s Party: 13 seats Conference Party: 12 seats Al-Nour Party: 11 seats Conservative Party: 6 seats Democratic Peace Party: 5 seats Egyptian Social Democratic: 4 seats Egyptian Patriotic Movement: 4 seats Modern Egypt Party: 4 seats Reform and Development Party: 3 seats Freedom Party: 3 seats My Homeland Egypt Party: 3 seats National Progressive Unionist: 2 seats Arab Democratic Nasserist Party: 1 seat Revolutionary Guards Party: 1 seat Free Egyptian Building Party: 1 seat Independents: 351 seats
Elections
Last election	2 December 2015
Meeting place
People's Assembly chamber of the Egyptian Parliament building, Cairo, Egypt
Website
http://www.parliament.gov.eg

Egypt

This article is part of a series on the politics and government of Egypt
Constitution (history)
Government President (list) Abdel Fattah el-Sisi Prime Minister (list) Sherif Ismail Cabinet
Legislature Parliament House of Representatives Speaker (list) Ali Abdel Aal
Judiciary Supreme Constitutional Court
Administrative divisions Governorates Regions
Recent elections Presidential: 2005 2012 2014 Parliamentary: 2010 2011–12 2015 Municipal: 2008 2012
Political parties (former)
Foreign relations Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Other countries Atlas Politics portal

The House of Representatives (Arabic: مجلس النواب‎, Maǧlis an-Nowwab) is the unicameral parliament of Egypt.

On 14 June 2012, the Supreme Constitutional Court of Egypt ruled that part of the parliamentary election had been invalid and ordered a new ballot, citing alleged problems in the election of members.^[2] Based on this ruling, the SCAF military council declared the lower house of parliament dissolved. However, newly elected president Mohamed Morsi decreed that he was setting aside the decision of the military and ordered the legislature to reconvene on 8 July.^[3] On 10 July 2012, the Supreme Constitutional Court voided the President's decision to call the nation's parliament back into session.^[4] The Supreme Administrative Court ruled on 22 September 2012 in favor of the earlier ruling of the Supreme Constitutional Court to dissolve the People's Assembly.^[5]

Formation of the Assembly

The 2014 constitution that was passed in the 2014 constitutional referendum^[6] has put into place the following rules: the House that is elected following the ratification of the constitution must have at least 450 members.^[7] In addition, prospective members must be Egyptian, must be at least 25 years old and must hold an education certificate.^[7] Also, the president can appoint, at the most, five percent of the members in the chamber.^[7]

The House sits for a five-year term but can be dissolved earlier by the president. All seats are voted on in each election. The House of Representatives members are elected by absolute majority of legitimate votes cast.

The People's Assembly may demand the resignation of the cabinet by adopting a motion of censure. For this reason, the Prime Minister of Egypt and his cabinet are necessarily from the dominant party or coalition in the House. When the president and house come from opposing parties (a situation which did arise historically, but not since the 1970s), this would lead to the situation known as cohabitation.

Powers

The House of Representatives has various competences stated in Chapter Five of the Constitution. According to article 86 the House of Representatives shall undertake:

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

In practice, the People's Assembly had very little power prior to the 2011 Egyptian revolution. It was dominated by the National Democratic Party, and there was little substantive opposition to executive decisions.

House of Representatives organization

Speaker of the House

Main article: Speaker of the House of Representatives (Egypt)

The House of Representatives Speaker (HR Speaker) presides over the House and is elected from the House membership, along with two 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 House' 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 Saad Al Katatny, who briefly presided the Assembly for only 5 months from 23 January 2012 to the dissolution of parliament on 18 June 2012.

Speaker's Staff Office

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

House' General Committee

This committee is formed in the beginning of the House' annual season, headed by the Speaker. Its membership includes the Deputy Speakers, representatives of the political parties' parliamentary committees, and five House 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 19 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 House' annual season, headed by one of the HR 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 House. This committee is responsible for looking into the violations committed by House 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 House of Representatives 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 House, 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.

^{http://www.masrawy.com/News/2005/Egypt/Politics/october/31/assembly1.aspx}

Elections

2015

Parliamentary seats by party

Main article: Egyptian parliamentary election, 2015

**Summary of the 2015 election for House of Representatives (Egypt)**
Party	Ideology	Votes	Vote %	FPTP Seats	List Seats	Total Seats	Component Parties
Free Egyptians Party	Liberal			57	8	65
Al-Nour Party	Islamist - Salafi			11	0	11
New Wafd Party	National liberal			27	8	36	1 appointed member
Nation's Future Party	N/A			43	10	53
Republican People's Party	N/A			13	0	13
Free Egyptian Building Party	N/A			1	0	1
Freedom Party	N/A			3	0	3
Homeland Defenders Party	N/A			10	8	18
Conference Party	N/A			8	4	12
Conservative Party	N/A			1	5	6
Democratic Peace Party	N/A			5	0	5
Egyptian Social Democratic Party	Social Democrats			4	0	4
Egyptian National Movement Party	N/A			4	0	4
Nasserist Party	Nasserist			1	0	1
Modern Egypt Party	pro-Sisi			4	0	4
Reform and Development Party	pro-Sisi			3	0	3
My Homeland Egypt Party	pro-Sisi			3	0	3
National Progressive Unionist Party	pro-Sisi			1	0	2	1 appointed member
Revolutionary Guards Party	pro-Sisi			3	0	3
Independents	Independents	-	-	251	74	351	28 Appointed members
Total elected	elected MPs	0	100.00	0	0	0
Appointees	non-elected MPs	-	-	-	-	0
Total	MPs	-	-	-	-	0

References

↑ "President Mansour signs into law parliamentary elections legislation". Ahram Online. 5 June 2014. Retrieved 6 June 2014.
↑ "Blow to Transition as Court Dissolves Egypt’s Parliament". New York Times. 14 June 2012. Retrieved 6 June 2014.
↑ "Egypt's Morsi orders parliament to reconvene". Al Jazeera English. 9 July 2012. Retrieved 6 June 2014.
↑ Watson, Ivan. "Court overrules Egypt's president on parliament". CNN. Retrieved 6 June 2014.
↑ "Egypt Islamists slam parliament's death knell,liberals celebrate". Ahram Online. 23 September 2012. Retrieved 6 June 2014.
↑ "Egyptians overwhelmingly back constitution - official results". Aswat Masriya. 18 January 2014. Retrieved 6 June 2014.
1 2 3 "Egypt's new constitution to be passed to president on Tuesday, opening the way for presidential elections first". Ahram Online. 2 December 2013. Retrieved 6 June 2014.

External links

Official website

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

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