How Sisi's choices of 100 members at Egyptian Senate guarantee partisan, gender, age diversity

CAIRO - 20 October 2020: President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi appointed 100 members out of 300 at the Senate in a fashion that guarantees diversity in the council. 

 

The 100 appointed members include eight heads of different parties. They are:

 

Hazem Omar, head of the People's Republic party

Lieutenant General Galal Haridy, head of Humat al-Watan (homeland protectors) party

Bahaa Abu Sheffa, head of the new Wafd party

Al-Sayed Abdel Aal, head of Tagammu, a socialist party

Mohamed Nabil Debes, Modern Egypt party,

Taiseer Matar, head of Iradet Geel (generation's will) part

Omar Semeida, head of the Conference party

Effat al-Sadat, head of Sadat Democratic party.

Other partisan figures appointed by Sisi include Abdel Aziz al-Nahhas and Hany Ser el-Din of Wafd party, and other personalities representing the Nasserite stream.

 

Sisi also appointed two members of Nour party, a salafist party that was founded after the 2011 revolution. The two Salafi members are Ashraf Thabet and Mahmoud Turky; the latter is also the youngest members of the Senate at 35 years old, as young age is another feature is Sisi's choices. 

 

According to the constitution, the president should appoint at least 10 women out of the 100. Sisi, however, appointed 20 women. 

 

The Senate held its inaugural session Sunday. Egypt has not had this council since 2013, then called the Shura Council. It was dissolved after the January 25 Revolution in 2011, and again in June 2013 after an election that the Constitutional Court had found unconstitutional.