Parliament approves lowering minimum age for mayoral candidates to 30

CAIRO – 6 June 2018: Parliament approved on Tuesday a proposed law amendment to lower the minimum age for mayoral candidates to 30 instead of 35 years old.
The amendment comes within the framework of widening the base of youth participation in the administrative posts.

Ensuring stronger competition, the Parliament approved amending Law No. 58 of 1978. The amendment will enable people with basic education to apply for the post. People who have average qualification or higher degrees of education only were previously allowed to apply for the post.

However, the amendments stipulated that the interior minister has the right to exempt some governorates and border areas from the previously mentioned legal criteria of choosing mayors, due to the special needs and circumstances of these areas.



According to the law, an Egyptian mayor serves for a 5-year renewable term. A mayor’s duties include supervising security in the village, and resolving disputes between families and individuals.

Unlike many other countries, mayors of the Egyptian villages are not elected by people residing in the village. However, applicants are selected for the post by a committee headed by the assistant interior minister for security affairs.

A proposal to allow the election of mayoral candidates instead of appointing them by officials was met by rejection by a number of parliamentarians in August 2016.

MP Mamoud Maqlad of the Defense, National Security and Mobilization Committee objected to the election of mayors, as mayors, unlike parliamentarians, are not representatives of people.