News / Egypt

Egypt legislature holds opening session after 3-year suspension

Sunday, 10 January 2016 9:14 AM [ Last Update: Sunday, 10 January 2016 9:14 AM ]

The photo shows a parliamentary session in Cairo, Egypt. ©AP

Egypt’s new parliament has convened its inaugural session over three years after the legislature was dissolved by a court ruling.

The new parliament, dominated by an alliance loyal to President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, has 568 elected members plus another 28 appointed by the head of state himself, Egypt’s state television reported on Sunday.

The assembly is due to elect a speaker on its first day while it has 15 days to approve hundreds of laws issued by an executive decree during the period when it was suspended.

Egypt’s last parliament was elected in 2011-12 following the revolution that toppled the country’s then dictator, Hosni Mubarak.

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which ruled Egypt after the ouster of Mubarak, dissolved the Brotherhood-dominated parliament in June 2012 in line with a ruling from the High Constitutional Court, which declared invalid the constitutional articles that regulated parliamentary polls.

The dissolution came days before Mohamed Morsi became the North African country’s first democratically-elected president. Morsi, however, was toppled a year later by Sisi.

Election officials count ballots at the end of the second round of voting for Egypt’s parliamentary elections in the capital city of Cairo, December 2, 2015. ©AFP

Egypt’s new chamber was chosen in elections that critics said were undermined by a crackdown on opposition groups. Voting was split into two phases, with officials putting the overall turnout at 28.3 percent.

The military-backed government in Cairo has been engaged in suppressing supporters of Morsi and the Brotherhood since the summer of 2013. The clampdown has led to the death of more than 1,400 people and the arrest of 22,000 others.

Muslim Brotherhood supporters continue to stage protests in different parts of Egypt to condemn what they call the illegal ouster of Morsi and the suppression of protesters.

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www.presstv.co.uk