CAIRO, Oct 3, 2018 - Speaker of the House of Deputies (HoD) Dr Ali Abdel-Aal on Tuesday announced the opening of the fourth ordinary session of the first parliamentary term. In a presidential decree, published in the Official Gazette last week, President Abdel Fattah El Sisi issued an order asking Parliament to convene this Tuesday (on Tuesday) for its fourth legislative session. According to the Constitution, each elected parliament has five legislative sessions, with each session lasting a minimum of nine months. Parliament convened for the first time in January 2016. Speaker Dr Abdel-Aal confirmed the parliament's confidence in President Sisi's vision and strong determination to fulfill the dreams of the Egyptian people. Addressing the inauguration of the fourth session of the first legislative term at the end of the summer recess, Dr Abdel-Aal said: "Every nation has a dream and we believe in the president's vision and strong and genuine determination to fulfill the dreams of the Egyptian people, who have the capacities and potential to make their dreams come true. The road ahead is still long and we will work harder to achieve more during this session," the Speaker added. "For the past three sessions, the House of Deputies was travelling a bumpy road and was engaged in several political, economic, social and cultural battles," he said. "The parliament also dealt with a lot of issues which have been accumulating for years and it managed to devise suitable solutions," Dr Abdel-Aal said. During this session, the parliament is expected to pass several important draft laws, most notably on local administration, the reconciliation procedure in case of building violations, water resources and irrigation, traffic and criminal procedure. Following the inauguration, the HoD approved a presidential nomination of deputies to the ministers of foreign affairs, transport and health. Ambassador Hamdy Louza was appointed deputy foreign minister for African affairs, Dr Amr Abdel Salam deputy minister of transport and Dr Tamer Mohamed Essam deputy health minister. In the course of on Tuesday's procedural session, Dr Abdel-Aal announced the appointment of Dr Abdel Hadi el-Kassabi as the new head of the "Egypt Support Coalition", replacing Engineer Mohamed el-Seweidi. The speaker urged all parties quickly to choose their representatives for the parliamentary bodies of the HoD. "We will complete the national, legislative and supervisory work that we started three years ago," said Dr el-Kassabi. He paid tribute to President Sisi, who took office amid extremely difficult circumstances and was able to achieve security and stability nationwide. He said that during the fourth session, the coalition would study the draft laws carefully and develop a system for discussing deputies' requests. For his part, former chief of the coalition Eng el-Seweidi said the HoD's future activities required more co-operation and effort. Addressing the inaugural session of the fourth parliamentary term, el-Seweidi added he was honoured to have led the coalition, and thanked the MPs for discharging their responsibilities at a time which required important political action, and which was full of challenges. He wished the new head of the coalition Dr el-Kassabi and the new leaders the best of luck. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Omar Marwan greeted the Egyptian people on the occasion of the 45th Anniversary of the October war victory in 1973. Marwan said that Egypt, under leadership of President Sisi, would achieve more success in all sectors.
