Parliament to witness 1st presidential oath in 13 yrs June 2

CAIRO - 31 May 2018: President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi will take the constitutional oath of office for his second term on Saturday.

Parliament Speaker Ali Abdel Aal ordered all members to convene on June 2 at 10:30 a.m. to attend the oath stipulated by Article 144 of the constitution.

The event will be the first of its kind witnessed by the Parliament since former President Hosni Mubarak took the oath in 2005. Sisi’s first oath was performed at the Constitutional Court in 2014.


A view of the parliament in downtown Cairo, being prepared for the oath on May 31, 2018 - Hazem Abdel Samad

The president defeated his electoral opponent Moussa Mostafa Moussa by 97 percent of valid votes in March, and 90 percent of all votes. Void votes accounted to 1.762 million ballots, a higher sum than the total votes for Moussa. Women and the elderly were the main voters.

No articles in the Constitution stipulate that the newly elected president should withdraw confidence from the current Cabinet, but Cabinet members used to submit their resignation after the end of the presidential term.

Meanwhile, the governors should submit their resignation according to the law of local administration, which stipulates that they should resign at the end of the presidential term.

If the new president wants to withdraw confidence from the Cabinet, he should acquire the approval of the absolute majority of members of Parliament.

The president is not is constitutionally committed to address the citizens after assuming the presidency. The matter depends on the president's desire to do so.