Egypt’s legislative assembly reconvenes after 3 years

World Today

Egypt’s new parliament convened Jan. 10, more than three years after the old Islamist-dominated chamber was dissolved. The 596 Members of Parliament are ready to begin work.

It was a fierce election at the end of 2015, as the new constitution merged the two houses of parliament into one assembly. The Support Egypt Alliance, allied to the president accumulated the largest number of MPs.

CCTV’s Yasser Hakim gives us a review of the new parliament and what is expected from the MPs.

“It is a special parliament because it’s the largest ever in Egypt’s history. The power of this parliament is more powerful than the previous ones. It’s even got some responsibilities from the president to the new parliament,” Sameh Seif El Yazal, chairman of the Support Egypt Alliance, said. “We’ve got a parliament which has powers of the president for the first time which makes it very strong in the country.”

This year’s parliament includes 89 female MPs, the highest in decades. And for the first time, a third of the assembly are youth.

It also comes at a crucial phase for Egypt: It’s the first after an uprising that ousted Mohamed Morsi and the Brotherhood from power, and saw the rise of Abdel Fattah al Sisi. There are important files ahead for the new assembly to deal with.

But are Egyptians confident the assembly will perform? All eyes will be on the first session on Jan. 11.