Secretary-general of Egypt's parliament Mahmoud Fawzi announced on Wednesday that he has decided to resign from office. In a letter sent to parliament speaker Hanafi Gibali on Wednesday morning, Fawzi said "let me inform you that I apologise for not being able to continue in my position as a secretary-general of the House of Representatives." "I believe I have done my job sincerely and helped a new leadership of the House take office at the end of its first procedural session (on Tuesday), and in a way that received the admiration and interest of all," said Fawzi, adding that "as I realise that a new leadership has its own schedule and objectives, let me open the door for you to choose your new work staff and wish you all good luck." In response, the House's leadership bureau, headed by speaker Gibali, said in a statement that it has accepted Fawzi's resignation. "We thank him for all the work and effort he exerted throughout the period he was in charge as the House's secretary-general," said Gibali. According to the House's internal laws, the speaker should proceed to select a new secretary as soon as possible and MPs should be informed of his selection in the first plenary session. Parliament's secretary-general is the one responsible for running the House's daily administrative and financial affairs. Meanwhile, Egypt's newly-elected parliament held a 15-minute procedural session on Wednesday, in which new speaker Gibali opened the door for MPs to choose the parliamentary committees they wish to join. Each MP should join two committees and vote to elect one chairman, two deputies and one secretary-general for each of the two committees. Article 38 of parliament's internal bylaws states that one-quarter of each committee's members should not come from one provincial governorate. Article 39 also states that the speaker shall receive all the proposed lists of members of each committee and coordinate on the final number of members in each committee. The House will hold two procedural sessions on Thursday to announce the final lists of members of 25 parliamentary committees and the results of the election of their leading posts. The House held a 12-hour opening procedural session on Tuesday in which Gibali was elected as new speaker and Ahmed Saadeddin and Mohamed Abul-Enenin were elected as two deputy speakers. Egypt held parliamentary elections between 21 October and 8 December 2020 to elect a new 596-member parliament.
