Proposal to extend Sisi's term sparks controversy in Egypt
Signatures are being collected to lift constitutional restrictions on Egypt's presidential term limits and give Sisi more time to "implement the projects he started."
Calls by some Egyptian lawmakers to amend Article 140 of the Egyptian Constitution to extend the current four-year presidential term by two years have sparked controversy in Egypt, with some members of the pro-government parliamentary majority bloc, “In Support of Egypt,” throwing their weight behind the idea, while critics have lambasted it as a “sign of political immaturity.”
On Aug. 6, Ismail Nasreddine, a hitherto little-known parliament member representing Helwan — a district south of Cairo — began collecting signatures for the motion to lift restrictions on President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's re-election. He argued that “four years is not long enough to allow President Sisi to implement the projects he started.”
Speaking to Al-Monitor, Nasreddine echoed earlier comments by parliament Speaker Ali Abdel Al that the 2014 constitution was written at a time of “instability” — a reference to the protests by supporters of ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi that took place in the wake of his removal from office in July 2013 — but that “circumstances have changed since, necessitating amendments to the charter.”
“The constitution is man-made; it is not the word of God,” he said, adding that “people make mistakes and those mistakes ought to be corrected.”
