The House of Representatives released a statement Sunday detailing procedures taken regarding the proposed constitutional amendments.
The statement said that the final drafting of the amendments might be finalized by mid-April, after which two-thirds of the Parliament members’ votes are required to pass the amendments to a national referendum.
The National Election Authority is expected to invite citizens to a national referendum.
As per the constitutional amendments, the presidential term would be extended for 6 years instead of 4 years and heads of the judicial bodies would be appointed by the president.
The new amendments also call for allocating 25 percent of the Parliament seats for women.
In the following lines, the statement lists the steps already taken as well as future ones to be taken while considering the suggested amendments:
On February 3, 2019: A total of 155 Parliament members, constituting one fifth of the members of the House, submitted a request to Parliament Speaker Ali Abdel Aaal to amend a number of constitutional articles in light of Article 226 that allows amending the Constitution per a request from the president or one-fifth of the Parliament members.
The parliament speaker immediately notified the House members of the request, and referred it to the public committee to make sure conditions and regulations are met as per Article 226.
The General Committee at the Parliament held constant meetings during February 3-5 to consider the amendment request. At its last meeting, the committee voted by majority to implement amendments to some constitutional articles.
The committee’s report on the amendments was made available to all the members of the Parliament before holding discussions over three consequent sessions. A total of 485 members approved the amendments during the committee’s session, after which the amendment request was passed to the Constitutional and Legislative Committee at the Parliament to start drafting the amendments.
Over 30 days, the Constitutional and Legislative Committee received several notices and suggestions submitted by members, institutions and citizens regarding the amendments.
The societal dialogue sessions kicked off on March 20, and were agreed to continue for two weeks. The first week witnessed three hearing sessions attended by several society members including: Azhar and Church representatives, juries, editors-in-chief of newspapers, media professionals, and journalists.
Other three sessions are set to be held on March 27-28, where politicians, political parties’ heads, businessmen and public figures are expected to attend.
By the end of the societal dialogue sessions, the Constitutional and Legislative Committee will draft the constitutional articles according to the proposed amendments in its final wording, and will prepare a report to be submitted to a general vote at the Parliament.
In case two-thirds of the Parliament members approved the final draft of the amendments, the National Election Authority will invite citizens to cast their vote in a national referendum to decide on whether to pass the constitutional amendments.
Egypt Today
