In parliamentary committee election results, the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party heads key economic committees and the Salafist Nour Party will preside over that for education The People's Assembly speaker Mohamed Saad El-Katatni has declared the results of the internal elections for the parliamentary committees on Tuesday, in the eighth session of the new parliament. So far, the results for 10 parliamentary committees have been announced, dominated by the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood. Parliamentarian Mahmoud El-Khodairy of the FJP has been elected head of the legislative parliamentary committee. The prominent reformist judge who played a distinct role the movement for an independent judiciary under ousted president Mubarak, had previously been expected to become parliamentary speaker. However El-Khodairy did not nominate himself for the post after the FJP announced that they would nominate veteran Brotherhood parliamentarian El-Katatny for the position. El-Khodairy ran for the People's Assembly elections on the Democratic Alliance list dominated by the FJP. Sobhi Saleh of the FJP has been elected the undersecretary of the Legislation Committee. Saleh was a member of the committee that supervised the constitutional amendments that were voted on in a referendum last year. Parliamentarian and FJP Deputy President Essam El-Erian has been elected the head of the Foreign Affairs committee. El-Erian is one of the most known faces of the Brotherhood when it comes to foreign relations, and is one of its key spokespeople in international media. Parliamentarian and known political analyst Wahid Abdel Maged and member of parliament (MP) Gamal Hishmat of the FJP have both elected undersecretaries of the Foreign Affairs Committee. MP Mohamed El-Sayed Idris of the Nasserist Karama Party has been elected head of the Arab Affairs Committee. Idris, a famous writer is considered to be amongst the founder of the pro-democracy movement Kefaya in the 2000s. The Hadara Party's Mohamed Abdel Moneim El-Sawy has been elected head of the Culture and Media Committee. El-Sawy was appointed minister of culture in February 2011 in Ahmed Shafik's cabinet before the cabinet resigned two weeks later as a result of public pressure. El-Sawy is known for having founded in 2003 the El-Sawy Culture Wheel, the first private culture centre in Egypt and central to Cairo's cultural scene. MP Akram El-Shaer of the FJP has been elected head of the Health Committee. El-Shaer, a veteran member of parliament before the revolution was active in raising health issues in the People's Assembly. He has been a member of the board of the Doctors' Syndicate since the mid-1990s. MP Mohamed Anwar El Sadat of the Reform and Development Party has been elected head of the Human Rights Committee. MP Mahmoud Askar of the FJP has been elected head of the Religious Affairs Committee. The Salafist Nour Party will head the Education and Scientific Research Committee, with MP Shabaan Ahmed Abdel El-Alim elected to its chair. MP Tarek Dousky also of the Nour Party has been elected head of the Economic Affairs Committee. Parliamentarian Abbas Mokhamir of the FJP has been elected as the head of the National Security Committee. Parliamentarian Sabry Amar of the FJP has been elected head of the Transportation and Traffic Committee while MP Saber Abou El-Fatouh has been elected head of the Labour Committee. MP Kamel Abu Eita, a famous labour activist and member of the Democratic Alliance has been elected undersecretary of the Labour Committee. MP Osama Yassin of the FJP has been elected as head of the Youth Committee. Meanwhile parliamentarians from the liberal Wafd Party announced that it had boycotted the parliamentary committees' elections because of what they consider to be a monopoly on the part of the FJP. Parliamentarian Mostafa El-Naggar of the Adl Party had announced that he would also boycott the elections to the parliamentary committees. http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/33333.aspx
