April 19 marked the 100th day of the first session held by Egypt’s new parliament on Jan. 10. During this period, the legislature’s sessions were marked by battles, challenges and various crises involving members of parliament. The first crisis came on day 1, when inappropriate behavior by some of the parliamentarians was broadcast on live TV. This caused a wave of criticism and mockery on social networking sites, prompting the speaker of parliament, Ali Abdel Aal, who was elected by a majority of parliamentarians, with 380 votes, to issue a decision to stop live coverage of parliamentary sessions.
The most prominent challenge facing the parliament in its first session was the impasse posed by Article 156 of the Egyptian Constitution. The article notes that when “an event that requires taking urgent measures, which cannot be delayed,” occurs while the parliament is not in session, the president will call for an urgent session to discuss the matter. However, according to the same article, if a parliament has not been elected, the president has the authority to issue decrees that enter into force of law, but these decrees must be debated and approved by parliament within 15 days once a legislature is elected.
From the time he assumed office in June 2014 until the first parliamentary session, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi had issued 342 decrees. This meant legislatures were faced with the seemingly impossible task of debating and ratifying more than 20 decrees per day to meet the 15-day constitutional deadline. To do this, the parliament formed committees to discuss all of these laws according to competences, but without holding elections for committee heads. The parliament approved all of the proposed laws except for the Civil Service Law, which triggered a controversy among the Egyptian public — 332 members of parliament rejected this law compared to 150 who voted in favor of it, while seven members abstained. The Support Egypt coalition, which represents the parliamentary majority and is accused of being the voice of the state in the parliament, had announced its support for this law, yet its members of parliament renounced their approval just before the vote.
Although 100 days are a very short period for this parliament with a five-year mandate, intense battles have already been raging between its members, reaching the point of the resignation of one parliamentarian, the suspension of another and several threats of resignation.
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