Politics of Egypt
Encyclopedia
The government of Egypt, as of February 27, 2011, is a republic
Republic
A republic is a form of government in which the people, or some significant portion of them, have supreme control over the government and where offices of state are elected or chosen by elected people. In modern times, a common simplified definition of a republic is a government where the head of...

 currently under military rule
Military junta
A junta or military junta is a government led by a committee of military leaders. The term derives from the Spanish language junta meaning committee, specifically a board of directors...

 of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces
Supreme Council of the Armed Forces
The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces consists of a body of 20 senior officers in the Egyptian military. As a consequence of the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, the Council took the power to govern Egypt from its departing President Hosni Mubarak on February 11, 2011.The junta meets regularly, as...

 after the President of Egypt
President of Egypt
The President of the Arab Republic of Egypt is the head of state of Egypt.Under the Constitution of Egypt, the president is also the supreme commander of the armed forces and head of the executive branch of the Egyptian government....

 Hosni Mubarak
Hosni Mubarak
Muhammad Hosni Sayyid Mubarak is a former Egyptian politician and military commander. He served as the fourth President of Egypt from 1981 to 2011....

 stepped down following several days of mass protests. Legislative power is vested in both the government
Government
Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...

 and the People's Assembly
People's Assembly of Egypt
The People's Assembly is the lower house of Egypt's bicameral parliament. In spite of its lower status, however, it plays a more important role in drafting legislation and day-to-day legislative duties than the Shura Council, the upper house....

.

Background

Egypt has been a republic since 18 June 1953. Since the declaration of the republic, four Egyptians have served as presidents. The first President to take office was President Mohamed Naguib. The fourth president was Mohamed Hosni Mubarak
Hosni Mubarak
Muhammad Hosni Sayyid Mubarak is a former Egyptian politician and military commander. He served as the fourth President of Egypt from 1981 to 2011....

, the President of Egypt
President of Egypt
The President of the Arab Republic of Egypt is the head of state of Egypt.Under the Constitution of Egypt, the president is also the supreme commander of the armed forces and head of the executive branch of the Egyptian government....

 since October 14, 1981, following the assassination of former President Mohammed Anwar El-Sadat.

In early 2011, following the Tunisian Revolution, there was a revolution in Egypt. Mass protest compelled Mubarak, the leader of the National Democratic Party
National Democratic Party (Egypt)
The National Democratic Party , often simply called Al-Ḥizb al-Waṭaniy – the "National Party", was an Egyptian political party. It was founded by President Anwar El Sadat in 1978....

, to resign on 11 February 2011, ending his fifth term in office. He was replaced by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces
Supreme Council of the Armed Forces
The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces consists of a body of 20 senior officers in the Egyptian military. As a consequence of the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, the Council took the power to govern Egypt from its departing President Hosni Mubarak on February 11, 2011.The junta meets regularly, as...

 headed by Field Marshall Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, which dissolved the Parliament of Egypt
Parliament of Egypt
The Parliament of Egypt is the currently dissolved bicameral legislature of Egypt. The Parliament is located in Cairo, Egypt's capital. As the legislative branch of the Egyptian government, the Parliament enacts laws, approves the general policy of the State, the general plan for economic and...

, suspended the Constitution of Egypt
Constitution of Egypt
The Constitution of the Arab Republic of Egypt was the fundamental law of Egypt. It was adopted on September 11, 1971 through a public referendum. It was later amended in 1980, 2005 and 2007. It was proclaimed to update the democratic representative system in assertion of the rule of law,...

, and promised free, open presidential
Egyptian presidential election, 2011
A presidential election is expected to be held in Egypt in March or April 2012. It will be the second even remotely competitive presidential election in Egypt's history, following the 2005 election and presidential confirmation referendums in 1999, 1993, and earlier...

 and parliamentary
Egyptian parliamentary election, 2011
An early parliamentary election is currently being held in Egypt from November 2011 onwards, following the revolution which ousted President Hosni Mubarak, after which the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces dissolved the parliament of Egypt...

 elections before the year's end and within six months. Prime Minister Ahmed Shafik
Ahmed Shafik
Ahmed Mohamed Shafik is a former senior commander in the Egyptian Air Force and politician who served as Prime Minister of Egypt from January 2011 to March 2011....

 was sworn in as Prime Minister on January 29 2011, in response to the 2011 Egyptian revolution
2011 Egyptian revolution
The 2011 Egyptian revolution took place following a popular uprising that began on Tuesday, 25 January 2011 and is still continuing as of November 2011. The uprising was mainly a campaign of non-violent civil resistance, which featured a series of demonstrations, marches, acts of civil...

; he was succeeded on 5 March by Essam Sharaf
Essam Sharaf
Essam Abdel-Aziz Sharaf is an Egyptian academic who has been Prime Minister of Egypt since 3 March 2011. He served as Minister of Transportation from 2004 to 2005.-Early life and education:...

, in response to continued protests.

On 19 March, a constitutional referendum
Egyptian constitutional referendum, 2011
A constitutional referendum was held in Egypt on 19 March 2011, following the 2011 Egyptian revolution. More than 14 million were in favour, while around 4 million opposed the changes; 41% of 45 million eligible voters turned out to vote....

 was voted on and passed reforming the laws surrounding the power and election of the presidency. constitution, limiting the presidency to two six-year terms
Term limit
A term limit is a legal restriction that limits the number of terms a person may serve in a particular elected office. When term limits are found in presidential and semi-presidential systems they act as a method to curb the potential for monopoly, where a leader effectively becomes "president for...

, providing judicial
Judiciary
The judiciary is the system of courts that interprets and applies the law in the name of the state. The judiciary also provides a mechanism for the resolution of disputes...

 supervision of elections, requiring the president to appoint a deputy, calling for a commission to draft a new constitution following the parliamentary election, and easier access to presidential elections by candidates (30,000 signatures from at least 15 provinces, 30 members of a chamber of the legislature, or nomination by a party holding at least one seat in the legislature).

Presidency

Under the new regulations of the March 2011 referendum, the president is limited to two six-year terms
Term limit
A term limit is a legal restriction that limits the number of terms a person may serve in a particular elected office. When term limits are found in presidential and semi-presidential systems they act as a method to curb the potential for monopoly, where a leader effectively becomes "president for...

; the providing Judiciary
Judiciary
The judiciary is the system of courts that interprets and applies the law in the name of the state. The judiciary also provides a mechanism for the resolution of disputes...

 will supervise the elections; the president is required to appoint a deputy; a commission will draft a new constitution following the parliamentary election; to get on the ballot presidential candidates will be required to provide 30,000 signatures from at least 15 provinces, 30 members of a chamber of the legislature, or nomination by a party holding at least one seat in the legislature.

Following the convening of the newly elected People’s Assembly and Majlis al-Shura in March 2012, a committee will draft a new constitution to replace the pre-revolutionary one, and then presidential elections will be held. Since the committee has up to six months to finish its work, the presidential election may not be held until the end of August 2012.

Legislative branch

Parliament
Parliament of Egypt
The Parliament of Egypt is the currently dissolved bicameral legislature of Egypt. The Parliament is located in Cairo, Egypt's capital. As the legislative branch of the Egyptian government, the Parliament enacts laws, approves the general policy of the State, the general plan for economic and...

 meets for one eight-month session each year; under special circumstances the President of the Republic can call an additional session. Even though the powers of the Parliament have increased since the 1980 Amendments of the Constitution, the Parliament continues to lack the powers to balance the extensive powers of the President.

The People’s Assembly (Maglis El-Shaab)

The People's Assembly
People's Assembly of Egypt
The People's Assembly is the lower house of Egypt's bicameral parliament. In spite of its lower status, however, it plays a more important role in drafting legislation and day-to-day legislative duties than the Shura Council, the upper house....

 is the principal legislative body. Out of the assembly’s 454 deputies
Chamber of Deputies
Chamber of deputies is the name given to a legislative body such as the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or can refer to a unicameral legislature.-Description:...

, 444 are directly elected while no more than 10 may be appointed by the President (article 87 of the Constitution). The assembly sits for a five-year term but can be dissolved earlier by the President. All seats are voted on in each election. Four hundred seats are voted on using proportional representation
Proportional representation
Proportional representation is a concept in voting systems used to elect an assembly or council. PR means that the number of seats won by a party or group of candidates is proportionate to the number of votes received. For example, under a PR voting system if 30% of voters support a particular...

 while the remaining forty-four are elected in local majority votes. The Constitution reserves fifty percent of the assembly seats for ‘workers and peasants’, (although in practice the "workers and peasants" have come to be retired military officers and internal security personnel).

The People’s Assembly may force the resignation of the executive cabinet by voting a motion of censure. For this reason, the Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Egypt
The Prime Minister of Egypt is the head of the Egyptian government. According to the constitution, the prime minister is the leader of the largest political party in the Egyptian Parliament....

 and his cabinet are necessarily from the dominant party or coalition in the assembly. In the case of a president and assembly from opposing parties, this leads to the situation known as cohabitation
Cohabitation (government)
Cohabitation in government occurs in semi-presidential systems, such as France's system, when the President is from a different political party than the majority of the members of parliament. It occurs because such a system forces the president to name a premier that will be acceptable to the...

. While motions of censure are periodically proposed by the opposition following government actions that it deems highly inappropriate, they are purely rhetorical; party discipline ensures that, throughout a parliamentary term, the government is never overthrown by the assembly.

The People's Assembly was dissolved with the abrogation of the constitution in February of 2011. The first round of new elections is scheduled to start on November 28 2011, the second round would be held on December 14, the third on January 3 and the new assembly would convene on March 17. Nomination for the elections will start on October 12. 70% of the 498 parliamentary seats will be based on the party list system and the remaining 30% through individual-candidate voting, according to official news agency MENA. "Egypt will be divided into 60 constituencies in accordance to the decree, 30 for the party lists system in which each list must include at least a woman candidate while the other 30 for the individual-candidate system in which the candidate shouldn't be affiliated to any political party." The reservation of 30 seats simple majority seats for independent candidates is controversial.

The Consultative Council (Maglis El-Shura)

The Shura Council is the 264-member upper house of Parliament created in 1980. In the Shura Council 176 members are directly elected and 88 members are appointed by the President of the Republic for six-year terms. One half of the Shura Council is renewed every three years.

The Shura Council's legislative powers are limited. On most matters of legislation, the People’s Assembly retains the last word in the event of a disagreement between the two houses.

The Shura Council was dissolved with the abrogation of the constitution in February of 2011. Post-revolutionary, three round elections for the new 270 seat Shura Council will start on January 29, 2012 and end on March 11.

Parliamentary elections

There currently exist eighteen recognized political parties from across the political spectrum. The formation of political parties based on religion is prohibited by the Constitution. The official opposition and political pressure groups, like the Muslim Brotherhood
Muslim Brotherhood
The Society of the Muslim Brothers is the world's oldest and one of the largest Islamist parties, and is the largest political opposition organization in many Arab states. It was founded in 1928 in Egypt by the Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna and by the late 1940s had an...

, are active in Egypt and make their views public. They are represented at various levels in the political system. Prior to the revolution, power was concentrated in the hands of the President of the Republic and the National Democratic Party
National Democratic Party (Egypt)
The National Democratic Party , often simply called Al-Ḥizb al-Waṭaniy – the "National Party", was an Egyptian political party. It was founded by President Anwar El Sadat in 1978....

 which retained a super-majority in the People's Assembly.

The November 2000 Parliamentary Elections were generally regarded to have been more transparent and better executed than past elections. This is due to the new Law put into force establishing universal judicial monitoring of polling stations. However, these were ignored. On the other hand, opposition parties continue to lodge credible complaints about electoral manipulation by the government. Moreover, many Egyptians feel their votes are being monitored by poll workers, and could face retribution for their votes. There were significant restrictions on the political process and freedom of expression for non-governmental organizations, including professional syndicates and organizations promoting respect for human rights.

With the abrogation of the Constitution in February of 2011, parliament was dissolved. On July 13 an army source told Reuters
Reuters
Reuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...

 new agency that the parliamentary election would be held in November, with registration of candidates planned for September 2011. Many new political parties have formed in anticipation of running candidates in the election.

Below the national level, authority is exercised by and through governors and mayors appointed by the central government and by popularly elected local councils.

Military Council

Following the 11 February 2011 resignation of president Hosni Mubarak
Hosni Mubarak
Muhammad Hosni Sayyid Mubarak is a former Egyptian politician and military commander. He served as the fourth President of Egypt from 1981 to 2011....

, Egypt came under the authority of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces
Supreme Council of the Armed Forces
The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces consists of a body of 20 senior officers in the Egyptian military. As a consequence of the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, the Council took the power to govern Egypt from its departing President Hosni Mubarak on February 11, 2011.The junta meets regularly, as...

, commonly referred to as the Military Council. It is headed by Field Marshall Mohamed Hussein Tantawi. The council is intended to be transitional, surrendering its state powers to the president following his/her election, the date of which has not been set. The council has considerable power and, according to at least one source, has unilaterally issued a constitutional declaration giving itself legislative and judicial powers to "basically decide what the law is."

Political parties and elections

According to the Egyptian Constitution
Constitution of Egypt
The Constitution of the Arab Republic of Egypt was the fundamental law of Egypt. It was adopted on September 11, 1971 through a public referendum. It was later amended in 1980, 2005 and 2007. It was proclaimed to update the democratic representative system in assertion of the rule of law,...

, political parties are allowed to exist. Religious political parties are not allowed as it would not respect the principle of non-interference of religion in politics
Separation of church and state
The concept of the separation of church and state refers to the distance in the relationship between organized religion and the nation state....

 and that religion has to remain in the private sphere to respect all beliefs. Also forbidden are political parties supporting militia formations or having an agenda that is contradictory to the constitution and its principles, or threatening the country's stability such as national unity between Muslim Egyptians and Christian Egyptians.

As of mid-2011, there were 18 political parties in Egypt.

Civil society

Egyptians
Egyptians
Egyptians are nation an ethnic group made up of Mediterranean North Africans, the indigenous people of Egypt.Egyptian identity is closely tied to geography. The population of Egypt is concentrated in the lower Nile Valley, the small strip of cultivable land stretching from the First Cataract to...

 have been living under emergency law since 1967, except for an 18-month break in 1980. Emergency laws have been continuously extended every three years since 1981. These laws sharply circumscribe any non-governmental political activity: street demonstrations, non-approved political organizations, and un-registered financial donations are formally banned. Nonetheless, since 2000, these restrictions have been violated in practice. In 2003, the agenda shifted heavily towards local democratic reforms, opposition to the succession of Gamal Mubarak
Gamal Mubarak
Gamal Al Din Mohammed Hosni Sayed Mubarak , , is the younger of the two sons of ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and former First Lady Suzanne Mubarak...

 as president, and rejection of violence by state security forces. Groups involved in the latest wave include PCSPI, the Egyptian Movement for Change (Kefaya), and the Association for Egyptian Mothers.

Substantial peasant activism exists on a variety of issues, especially related to land rights
Land rights
Land law is the form of law that deals with the rights to use, alienate, or exclude others from land. In many jurisdictions, these species of property are referred to as real estate or real property, as distinct from personal property. Land use agreements, including renting, are an important...

 and land reform
Land reform
[Image:Jakarta farmers protest23.jpg|300px|thumb|right|Farmers protesting for Land Reform in Indonesia]Land reform involves the changing of laws, regulations or customs regarding land ownership. Land reform may consist of a government-initiated or government-backed property redistribution,...

. A major flash point was the 1997 repeal of Nasser-era land reform policies
Egyptian land reform
The post-revolution Egyptian Land Reform was an effort to change land ownership practices in Egypt following the 1952 Revolution launched by Gamal Abdel Nasser and the Free Officers Movement.-Problems prior to 1952:...

 under pressure for structural adjustment
Structural adjustment
Structural adjustments are the policies implemented by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in developing countries. These policy changes are conditions for getting new loans from the International Monetary Fund or World Bank, or for obtaining lower interest rates on existing loans...

. A pole for this activity is the Land Center for Human Rights.

The Egyptian Revolution of 2011, inspired by the recent revolution in Tunisia
Tunisia
Tunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...

, forced the resignation of President Mubarak and the Military Junta that succeeded him abrogated the Constitution and promised free and fair elections under a new one.

Political pressure groups and leaders

The Muslim Brotherhood
Muslim Brotherhood
The Society of the Muslim Brothers is the world's oldest and one of the largest Islamist parties, and is the largest political opposition organization in many Arab states. It was founded in 1928 in Egypt by the Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna and by the late 1940s had an...

 and the National Democratic Party are considered the best organized political groups in Egypt. Before the revolution Mubarak tolerated limited political activity by the Brotherhood for his first two terms, but then moved more aggressively to block its influence (arguably leading to its recent rise in public support). Trade unions and professional associations are officially sanctioned.

Foreign relations

The permanent headquarters for the League of Arab States (The Arab League) is located in Cairo.The Secretary General of the League has traditionally been an Egyptian. Former Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa
Amr Moussa
Amr Mohammed Moussa is an Egyptian politician and diplomat who was the Secretary-General of the Arab League, a 22-member forum representing Arab states, from 1 June 2001 until 1 June 2011. He is a candidate in the 2011 Egyptian presidential election....

 is the present Secretary General of the Arab League. The Arab League moved out of Egypt to Tunis in 1978 as a protest at the peace treaty with Israel, but returned in 1989.

Egypt was the first Arab state to establish diplomatic relations with the state of Israel, after the signing of the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty at the Camp David Accords. Egypt has a major influence amongst other Arab states, and has historically played an important role as a mediator in resolving disputes between various Arab nations, and in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. Most Arab nations still give credence to Egypt playing that role, though its effects are often limited.

Former Egyptian Deputy Prime Minister Boutros Boutros-Ghali
Boutros Boutros-Ghali
Boutros Boutros-Ghali is an Egyptian politician and diplomat who was the sixth Secretary-General of the United Nations from January 1992 to December 1996...

 served as Secretary General of the United Nations from 1991 to 1996.

A territorial dispute with Sudan over an area known as the Hala'ib Triangle
Hala'ib Triangle
The Hala'ib Triangle is an area of land measuring located on the Red Sea's African coast...

, has meant that diplomatic relations between the two remain strained.

External links



General government sites
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