The Egyptian Parliament has initially approved, with 485 votes out of 596 parliament members, the proposed constitutional amendments, referring them to the constitutional and legislative committee for discussion. On Thursday, The parliament excluded amending constitutional articles 212, 213 concerning the National Press and Media Association. Ten MPs rejected the amendments proposed, including Samir Ghattas; Gamal Al-Sherif; Talaat Khalil; Haytham Al Hariri; Ahmed Tantawi; Mohammed Al-Utmani; Mostafa Hussien; Akram Qortam; Ahmed Al-Sharkawy, and Diaa El-Din Dawood. During the session, parliament speaker Ali Abdel Aal said that a wide scale social dialogue headed by the legislative committee will be held over two months to address the proposed amendments. MPs discussed on Wednesday a 26-page report on the constitutional amendment in preparation for its referral to the constitutional and legislative affairs committee for in-depth discussion. The newly proposed constitutional amendments included amending a number of current articles, creating eight others, including one transitional article. The proposal seeks to extend the presidential period from four to six years and draft a transitional article that might allow President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi to start literally tabula rasa and run for office for two other presidential terms. The amendments proposed allocating at least a quarter of the 450 parliamentary seats for women, the youth, Copts, persons with disabilities, and Egyptian expats through solid and fixed articles. Furthermore, the proposals suggest establishing a Senate and introducing the post of vice president to assist the president in his duties. Earlier this month, one-fifth of MPs presented a petition to the parliament speaker to amend the 2014 Constitution.
