CAIRO — Article 244 of Egypt's 2014 constitution grants disabled Egyptians the right to appropriate representation in the next parliament. This representation has been set by the People's Assembly Law — which was considered unconstitutional in March and is currently being amended — at eight seats, out of a total of 120 seats of the electoral list system, representing one-third of the total parliamentary seats.
However, the Egyptian movement to empower people with disabilities believes that this quota is not enough. Hassan al-Sibai, the movement’s coordinator, told Al-Monitor that the constitution allocated a quota for those with disabilities for one parliamentary cycle, which has led Egyptian parties and electoral coalitions to deal with this group of voters as if their election was pro forma aimed at completing the lists' numbers.
