An Egyptian parliamentary committee has given initial approval to a proposal to amend the constitution in a way that would extend President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi’s time in office, state media say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mr Sisi is due to stand down in 2022, when his second four-year term ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But a proposal from the majority bloc in parliament would lengthen future presidential terms to six years and let Mr Sisi stand for another two terms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If approved by two-thirds of MPs, the changes would be put to a referendum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2013, Mr Sisi led the military’s overthrow of Egypt’s first democratically elected president, Mohammed Morsi, following protests against his rule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since then, he has overseen what human rights groups say is an unprecedented crackdown on dissent that has led to the detention of tens of thousands of people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mr Sisi was re-elected last April after winning 97% of the vote. He faced no serious competition because several potential rivals dropped out or were arrested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Article 140 of Egypt’s constitution, which was approved in a referendum in 2014, currently states that the president serves four-year terms and may only be re-elected once.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As well as lengthening terms to six years, the amendment submitted on Sunday by the pro-government Support Egypt Coalition would allow Mr Sisi to serve an additional two terms after his current one ends, according to a copy posted on Facebook by one MP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That would potentially allow the 64-year-old to stay in power until 2034.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Abdul Hadi al-Qudbi of the Support Egypt Coalition said it had acted “with a view of maintaining stability and continuing [Egypt’s] developmental strategy”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Tuesday, state-run Nile News TV quoted parliamentary Speaker Ali Abdul Aal as saying that the amendment had been approved by the General Committee after “fulfilling the required constitutional conditions”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The committee also approved other amendments that would create the post of vice-president, reintroduce a second chamber of parliament, and strengthen the representation of women, Coptic Christians and disabled people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 596-seat parliament is overwhelmingly supportive of Mr Sisi, but a small group of leftist MPs denounced the proposals, saying they would cancel out the principal gain of the 2011 popular uprising that ousted longtime President Hosni Mubarak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Project to amend #Egypt constitution unfolding & in full throttle,” tweeted the Nobel Prize winner Mohamed ElBaradei on Monday. “Arab Spring in reverse!”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An Egyptian parliamentary committee has given initial approval to a proposal to amend the constitution in a way that would extend President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi’s time in office, state media say. Mr Sisi is due to stand down in 2022, when his second four-year term ends. But a proposal from the majority bloc in parliament would lengthen future presidential terms… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3051"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3051\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3052,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3051\/revisions\/3052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}