Egypt has 'war government', faced COVID-19 successfully: House Speaker

CAIRO – 16 June 2020: Egypt’s parliament speaker Ali Abdel Aal described Egypt’s government as a “war government”, noting that it’s making a lot of efforts to face the novel coronavirus, COVID-19.

House of Representatives Speaker Ali Abdel Aal, added in statements Tuesday, that a study is underway to raise doctors' pay after increasing their infection allowance upon President Abdel Fatah El Sisi's directives.

The speaker made his remarks during a plenary session if the parliament to discuss a report prepared by the House planning and budget committee on the draft state budget for FY2020/2021.

The report also addressed the draft budgets of public economic bodies and the National Authority for Military Production as well as the draft third-year plan of the state's medium-term sustainable development plan.


Abdel Aal noted that physicians have been lured to emigrate to some western countries amid the coronavirus pandemic, commending the good move taken by the president in late March to increase doctors' infection allowance.

He also thanked the Egyptian Authority for Unified Procurement for its great efforts to fulfill citizens' medical needs.

On June 15, Egypt’s House of Representatives, approved, in principal a bill to issue the Senate law.

Under the bill, the Senate will be made up of 300 members, with one third to be elected through the individual candidacy system, a second third through the closed list system, and the remaining third to be named by the president.

According to the bill, women should represent at least 10 percent of the senators, and there will be 27 constituencies for the individual candidacy system, and four constituencies for the closed list system.

The senator's term of office will be five years and it will start as of the first meeting of the Senate.

The candidate, according to the bill, should be of Egyptian nationality, have performed the military service, enjoy his political and civil rights and have a university degree.