Egypt’s Parliament.. And Senate Elections!, Op-ed

In recent days, I have noticed some says that the performance of Parliament was lackluster, while the executive agencies dominated the scene, as we no longer have influential parliamentarians, whether from the opposition or the majority..

I disagree with this opinion, as there are figures and achievements that confirm that Parliament worked seriously and professionally throughout the past legislative session in light of many challenges, especially following January incidents and the chaos that preceded 2014, in addition to the legislations that it adopted.

Moreover, the parliament approved and discussed  more than 700 draft laws and nearly 350 decisions relating to thorny issues and unprecedented and important legislative amendments in the field of civil service law, health insurance and the establishment of an environment that helps in attracting the investment and developing agriculture and industry.

The outcomes of these laws and legislations were reflected in the life around us, and in supporting the state's efforts in the field of social protection and preserving the state's right without affecting the low-income groups, especially in light of Corona pandemic crisis.

The local and international circumstances in which the Egyptian parliament worked, are extremely difficult, whether because of the war on terrorism or the  external conspiracies.

One of the simplest challenges is the media coverage that has wronged the Parliament, we all remember the previous parliaments to which fixed pages in the Egyptian newspapers were allocated. There was also a frequency allocated by the Egyptian TV to a channel that were transmitting live broadcasts of Parliament sessions, this coverage made the citizen follows what is happening under the dome of the Parliament and increases his  awareness of the discussions, ideas and opinions.

I hope we will review the media coverage of the parliament, as we are on the threshold of a new parliamentary phase, besides the elections of the second legislative chamber, the Senate, that require the awareness and participation of the citizens.

Two weeks ago, I wrote about the  Senate elections, encouraged by the achievements of the House of Representatives, we couldn’t deny that the presence of the two chambers is better for the breadth of opinion and other opinion, I am confident that the next ten years will witness new formulas for the global political systems.

By noticing the figures, achievements, difficult circumstances, and internal and external challenges that our parliament has experienced, I must express my appreciation to Dr. Ali Abdel-Al who led the national parliament professionally with the distinguished members of the parliament and Secretary-General Mahmoud Fawzi, the dynamo of the parliament who has great parliamentary experience.

One of those professional parliamentarians is MP Mohamed Aboul Enein who was able to prove that the accumulated parliamentary experience gives a different parliamentary performance. The President of the Euro-Mediterranean Parliament and the Member of Parliament for 20 years is a role model in parliamentary performance.

Dr. Ali Abdel-Al, Dr. Hussein Issa, Chairman of the Budget and Budget Committee, Abdel-Hadi Al-Qasabi, head of the majority Support Egypt parliamentary bloc, and Eng. Ahmed El Seginy. Head of the Local Administrative Committee praised the performance of Businessman Aboul Enein.

I hope that the outcome will be wise and mature elections in which the voter is aware of participation and importance of electing those who realize the challenges facing Egypt.