The Second phase of the Egyptian parliament elections has ended. Runoffs are scheduled early next month and a couple of weeks later, parliament should hold its first meeting. Analysts say the new Members of Parliament will face an unprecedented workload in their first few weeks.
596 Egyptians are going to form the next parliament, this goes to record as the highest number in Egypt’s history. The parliamentarians will all be loaded with work. The new constitution approved in the 2014 referendum, gives the parliament a list of legislation to issue immediately after appointment.
They also carry the burden of hundreds of decree laws issued in the last three years. After constitutional court dissolved the Egyptian parliament in 2012, Egypt’s sole legislator became the President. In that case they are laws issued by interim President Adly Mansour and President Abdel Fattah El Sisi. 15 days is the period the constitution sets for parliament to review all of them.
“During that period the parliament must review, discuss and approve all laws issued before it was convened. It sounds harsh, but there is a simple way out of it. The most realistic approach is to quickly discuss all laws and approve them in the specified period. Then the chamber is allowed once again discuss any law it approved, later in the year.” Abdallah Al Maghazi, Constitutional Advisor to Prime Minister, Egypt
All of this is just the legislative duties of the parliament. As a monitoring body over the government performance, members must review the annual budget and government plan created before it convened. Because of all this workload, many analyst expect that the parliament will spend the first year revising old laws, incapable of creating its own new legislations. That’s if nor emergencies evolve during that time.
