Egypt’s parliament revamped to accommodate more MPs
The amendment of the electoral law in Egypt means the current parliament hall does not have enough space to accommodate an increased number of MPs.
In an attempt to overcome the crisis of the court ruling deeming the constituency division law unconstitutional — which the Supreme Constitutional Court has ordered annulled — the committee concerned with amending the laws had to increase the number of the constituencies' individual seats to 448, in addition to 120 for electoral lists, in addition to 5% of seats allocated to appointed MPs.
In 2012, the parliament building had 498 seats for legislators to sit in, while the number of MPs was 508. The new parliament has 597 MPs. In the past, some MPs would not show up for sessions; this is how the ones who actually attended could find seats to sit down.
The law was deemed unconstitutional for lack of fair representation. Article 102 of the Egyptian Constitution states that “the division of constituencies shall be defined by the law, taking into account the fair representation of constituencies and governorates and the equitable representation of voters."
The increase of the number of MPs in the upcoming parliament is proportional to the number of voters per each parliamentary seat that has been estimated at about 159,500 voters, with a relative deviation ranging between 119,000 and 199,000 voters, according to the Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC) and the state administrative division.
