During a phone interview with the TV Program “Yahdeth fi Masr”, [Happening in Egypt] on MBC Misr Channel, Wahdan added that the House of Representatives would refer the amendments to the legislative and constitutional affairs committee for legal discussion following the approval of the parliamentarians, and it would also open a social dialogue on the amendments.
Wahdan clarified that the committee would just discuss the referred amendments but has no ability to insert further amendments.
On Sunday, several Egyptian political parties declared their support for a request submitted by the Support Egypt coalition to amend some articles of the 2014 constitution, saying that the constitution came out during exceptional circumstances and is in need of updating.
The Hizb al-Geel (Democratic Generation) Party, the Free Egyptians Party and the Hezb al-Moatamar al-Masry (Egyptian Congress) Party said in separate statements on Saturday that these constitutional amendments would provide greater support to women, youth and people with special needs, especially as the current articles on quotas for these groups were transitional and not sustainable.
Speaker of the House of Representatives Ali Abdul Aal on Sunday referred the request submitted by more than one-fifth of the parliament members to amend the constitution to the General Committee for discussion.
The pro-government parliamentary coalition Support Egypt, which controls a majority of 350 seats in the House of Representatives, proposed the amendments after discussing the matter during a meeting for its political bureau.
Coalition head Abdel Hadi al-Qasabi said that that the discussions unanimously agreed on the importance of amending certain constitutional articles. It was proposed to add a new parliamentary chamber under the name of the Senate (formerly known as the Shura Council), a woman quota in the parliament of 25 percent of the members, extending the presidential term in office from 4 to 6 years, and the appointment of one or more deputies to the president.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
