Egypt Constitution

"The Supreme Law of Egypt"

The Egypt Constitution (the Arab Republic of Egypt) is the supreme law of Egypt.

Egypt Constitution 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, independence of Judiciary, and party plurality.

After the revolution that led to the overthrow of the monarch, King Farouk, and the declaration of the republic, President Nasser adopted the nation’s first written Egypt constitution as a republic in 1956.

During the short spell of the United Arab Republic, (Egypt, Syria, and North Yemen), President Nasser adopted yet another constitution for the new merger.

However when this merger was dissolved, Egypt returned to the 1956 constitution as its supreme law.

In 1964, President Nasser once again introduced a new written Egypt constitution for the republic as the 1963 Provisional Constitution.

In 1971, when President Anwar Sadat took office, he moved to the adoption of a new democratic constitution that would allow more freedoms, a return of a more sound parliamentary life and correct democratic practice with the return of political parties and a bicameral parliamentary system.

This Egypt Constitution is the fourth adopted constitution since the declaration of the republic and is known as "The Permanent Egyptian Constitution" although, since its ratification, it has been amended three times by two presidents; the first being in 1980 by President Sadat at the end of his presidency and the two other times by President Hosni Mubarak in both 2005 and early 2007.

The last amendments were the most comprehensive with 34 articles of the Egypt constitution changed. These amendments were mainly proposed by the National Democratic Party to move the country’s political and economic tendencies further away from socialism and more towards democracy and capitalism.

Today, various political powers in Egypt have asked for yet more reforms in hopes of a more complete constitution that would shape a better Egyptian political life, whether through more comprehensive amendments or through the adoption of a new constitution.

The Constitutional Proclamation of the constitution declares the main principles of the Egyptian Political system which are: Peace through:

• Freedom,
• Arab Unity,
• National Development.

The constitution establishes Egypt as a "Democratic State", deriving its sovereignty from the people, and as part of the Arab World.

It proclaims the system of government as a multi-party Semi-presidential system within the framework of the basic principles and components of the Egyptian society.

The Constitution upholds the concept of separation of powers; hence balances the powers of the three main authorities (Executive, Parliament, and the Judiciary).

Within this scheme, the Parliament monitors the actions of Executive Authority through many mechanisms and instruments, and in order to fulfill such monitoring role, members of the People’s Assembly enjoy parliamentary immunity.

The Constitution establishes party plurality as the foundation of the political system (Article 5) and so allows the formation of different political parties, however political parties are not allowed to be established based on any discriminatory basis such as religion, race or sex.

The Constitution also sets out methods for its own amendment by the request of either the People's Assembly or the President's. Both of which have to be subjected to a public referendum, after being voted for by at least two-thirds of the Assembly.

The Executive

The executive branch is made up of the President, the Prime Minister, the cabinet of ministers and the local administration.

The President is the most powerful office in the government. He appoints the Prime Minister from the party winning the majority of seats in parliament.

However the President has the power to relieve the Prime Minister from office without the parliament’s approval and may also remove the cabinet of ministers but after the consultations of the prime minister.

Customarily, the president is concerned with foreign policy and international relations while the Prime minister is concerned with domestic politics, economy and day-to-day operation of the government.

The President may dissolve the parliament for extraordinary reasons and have to call for new elections within 60 days.

The local Administration is made up of the governors of the 27 governorates and the local councils.

The Legislative

According to the constitution, the parliament is made up of two chambers: The People’s Assembly, the lower house and the Shura Council, the upper house.

The People’s Assembly may present the president for impeachment on the ground of grand treason or criminal conviction, by the agreement of one third of the People’s Assembly seats.

The President is impeached by the agreement of two-thirds of the People’s Assembly. Upon the issuing of the impeachment decision, the president is relieved temporarily of his position and the prime minister takes office.

The People’s Assembly may ask the withdrawal of confidence from the Prime minister by the request of One-tenth of the total seats (46 members).

The People’s Assembly may move to a vote of confidence from the government by a simply majority vote after at least 3 days from the request and a “istegwab” of the government.

After the decision of withdrawing the confidence from the government has been made, the decision is moved to the president who may accept it and the government is then asked to resign or the president may re-present the case to the assembly once again, if the same decision was taken, the president is then forced to accept the decision.

If the assembly reverts its decision, then this motion can not be opened to the floor in the same parliamentary session.

The Judiciary

According to the constitution, the Judiciary is an independent body and is vested with powers to oversee the practices of both the executive and legislative branches. Judges are independent and can not be taken out of office.