{"id":31781,"date":"2019-02-04T16:23:21","date_gmt":"2019-02-04T16:23:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=31781"},"modified":"2019-02-04T16:23:21","modified_gmt":"2019-02-04T16:23:21","slug":"egyptian-legislators-propose-presidential-term-extension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=31781","title":{"rendered":"Egyptian legislators propose presidential term extension"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Egypt will consider extending the presidential term to six years from four, a senior legislator said, which could allow President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi<\/a> to stay in power beyond 2022 when his second term ends.<\/p>\n

The speaker of Egypt’s parliament, Ali Abdelaal, said on Sunday he received a motion from MPs proposing constitutional amendments that will be considered by parliament after it is discussed in committee. He gave no details on the recommended changes.<\/p>\n

But Abdel-Hadi al-Qassabi, head of the Support Egypt parliamentary bloc that is sponsoring the amendments, said they included extending the presidential term.<\/p>\n

“Looking to maintain stability and to complete the development plans, there is a proposal to extend the presidential term to six years,” Qassabi told journalists in parliament before the motion was conveyed to Abdelaal.<\/p>\n

Speculation has been building that authorities would seek to change the current constitution, approved in a 2014 referendum, to allow Sisi to remain in office beyond two terms.<\/p>\n

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France’s Macron presses Sisi on human rights in Cairo meeting<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

It was not immediately clear if the proposed amendments would scrap the two-term limit stipulated in the current constitution, or if that limit would be retained to apply to the longer new six-year presidency.<\/p>\n

While opponents tweeted against the proposed amendments, supporters of the Egyptian government reiterated their support for the move to amend the charter on the ground of ensuring stability.<\/p>\n

The Egyptian constitution states “in all cases, texts pertaining to the re-election of the president of the republic or the principles of freedom and equality stipulated in this constitution may not be amended, unless the amendment brings more guarantees”.<\/p>\n

Constitutional changes could take months because they require approval by two thirds of parliament’s 596 members followed by a referendum.<\/p>\n

The current constitution allows the president and a fifth of parliament members to propose an amendment to any of the constitution’s articles, said Qassabi.<\/p>\n

Extended term<\/h2>\n

In December, Egyptian state news agency MENA said an Egyptian court had scheduled hearings on a petition by a number of ordinary Egyptians demanding the speaker of parliament take steps to introduce constitutional changes that would allow Sisi to seek re-election after his second term in office expires in 2022.<\/p>\n

The petitioners argue article 140 of the constitution that sets term limits is “unfair to the great Egyptian people”, and eight years gives a president too little time to deal with the economic and security challenges facing the country.<\/p>\n

Sisi was elected in 2014, one year after leading a coup against his predecessor Mohamed Morsi<\/a> of the Muslim Brotherhood<\/a> group.<\/p>\n

In June 2018, Sisi was re-elected to a second term in office, which ends in 2022.<\/p>\n

Under the Egyptian constitution, Sisi is not allowed to run for a third term.<\/p>\n

The Egyptian Presidency did not comment on the move, but Sisi said in a previous televised interview that he did not intend to amend the constitution and would refuse a third term.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Egypt will consider extending the presidential term to six years from four, a senior legislator said, which could allow President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to stay in power beyond 2022 when his second term ends. The speaker of Egypt’s parliament, Ali Abdelaal, said on Sunday he received a motion from MPs proposing constitutional amendments that will…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":31782,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}