Parliament of Egypt
| Parliament of Egypt | |
|---|---|
.svg) |
|
| Type | |
| Type | |
| Houses | House of Representatives |
| History | |
| Founded | 1866 |
| Structure | |
| Committees | Foreign Affairs Committee |
| Committees | Transportation Committee |
| Meeting place | |
| Cairo | |
| Website | |
| www |
|
The Parliament of Egypt is currently a unicameral legislature. The Parliament is located in Cairo, Egypt's capital. Under the country's 1971 constitution, as the legislative branch of the Egyptian state the Parliament enacted laws, approved the general policy of the State, the general plan for economic and social development and the general budget of the State, supervised the work of the government, and had the power to vote to impeach the President of the Republic, or replace the government and its Prime Minister by a vote of no-confidence.
The parliament is made up of 596 seats, with 448 seats elected through the individual candidacy system, 120 elected through winner-take-all party lists (with quotas for youth, women, Christians, and workers) and 28 selected by the president.
Parliamentary life began in Egypt as early as 1866, and since then several forms of national assemblies have been formed, dismantled and amended to reach the present-day form. Since 1866, Egypt witnessed seven parliamentary systems whose legislative and oversight competences varied and reflected the history of the Egyptian people's struggle to establish a society based on democracy and freedom. For more than 135 years of parliamentary history Egypt witnessed 32 Parliaments whose members ranged between 75 and 458 who contributed to writing Egypt's modern political social, economic and cultural history. According to the present-day constitution, the Parliament consists only of the House of Representatives ("Maǧlis an-Nowwab"), a 588-member lower house.
The Parliament has lacked the powers to effectively balance the powers of the president.
Egypt was without a parliament for three years. The parliament was dissolved in June, 2012. On 8 July 2012, President Mohamed Morsi said he would override the edict that had dissolved the country's elected lawmakers, but that was followed by his deposition. Elections for parliament were held from October 17, 2015 to December 2nd, 2015.
While parliamentary elections in the major cities are often fixed by the ruling party, elections in Upper Egypt -- the poorest and most underdeveloped part of the country where approximately 40% of Egypt's population live -- are more free, with the ruling party "recruiting whoever happened to win." According to journalist Peter Hessler, neglect of Upper Egypt has also allowed the region to "devised indigenous campaign traditions".
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Wikipedia