Calls by some Egyptian lawmakers to amend Article 140 of the Egyptian Constitution to extend the current four-year presidential term by two years have sparked controversy in Egypt, with some members of the pro-government parliamentary majority bloc, “In Support of Egypt,” throwing their weight behind the idea, while critics have lambasted it as a “sign of political immaturity.”

On Aug. 6, Ismail Nasreddine, a hitherto little-known parliament member representing Helwan — a district south of Cairo — began collecting signatures for the motion to lift restrictions on President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's re-election. He argued that “four years is not long enough to allow President Sisi to implement the projects he started.”

Speaking to Al-Monitor, Nasreddine echoed earlier comments by parliament Speaker Ali Abdel Al that the 2014 constitution was written at a time of “instability” — a reference to the protests by supporters of ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi that took place in the wake of his removal from office in July 2013 — but that “circumstances have changed since, necessitating amendments to the charter.”

“The constitution is man-made; it is not the word of God,” he said, adding that “people make mistakes and those mistakes ought to be corrected.”