Egyptian government information and political system
in Egypt
Flag of Egypt
Demonstrations during the January revolution
of Egypt that led to the fall of the dictatorship.
Egypt has been a presidency since the 23rd July revolution led by
Gamal Abd
El Nasser in 1952 when the Free Army Officers' movement overthrew the current
regime then and expelled king Farouk who has been known as the king of Egypt and
Sudan backed by the British.
The first Egyptian president in 1953 was Mohamed Naguib who has been a
general in the army. Nasser was the second president of Egypt in 1954.
Hosny Mubarak was president since 1981
after the assassination of late president Anwar Sadat
until 2011. The last election was held on September 7th 2005, Hosny Mubarak won by more
than 85% of the votes. Mubarak was deposed on 11th February 2001 during the 25
January revolution.
Until 2005 The constitution of Egypt put the rules of selecting a president
every 6 years by selecting a candidate by at least two thirds of the members of
the Egyptian parliament (People's Assembly) then holding a public referendum for people to vote for
the selected candidate but in May 2005 a new article in the constitution (
article 76 ) set the rules of electing a President by public vote for candidates
who get support of 250 of elected members of parliament or other elected bodies.
Also political parties can present a candidate with no need for the support of
parliament members.
There are three main Authorities in Egypt as stated by the Egyptian
constitution :
The Government
The Parliament
The Judicial system
The President chooses the prime minister who heads the government and selects
members of the governments (Ministers) and the president should approve his selection
for the government to start its assignments as dictated by the president.
The president as stated by the constitution is the supreme commander of the
Egyptian armed forces and he has the authority to choose the General commander
of the Egyptian army.
The parliament or Peoples' assembly as it is described in the constitution
consists of 444 members elected by the people in a public election every 5 years
in addition to 10 members at most assigned by the president. There is no need to
be a member of a political party in order to be a candidate in the election
although there are over 15 political parties in Egypt. National party (Al Watany)
was the ruling party until the 2011 revolution. Currently a ruling by the
supreme administration court ordered the dissolution of the party.
The Judicial authority is not controlled by the government as the
constitution states. It is a self governing body to avoid being manipulated by
the political powers and ensures that justice is not influenced by the political
streams. In fact Egyptian judges are well known for their integrity and justice.
Egypt Revolution - 25th January 2011 Revolution
A revolution started on 25th of January 2011 demanding the fall of the regime
and establishing democratic rule during which more than 300 people were killed
in the revolution most of them were under 30 years of age. The demonstrators
show a rare kind of courage in the face of cruelty of the police and security
forces which attracted millions of Egyptians who marched in all parts of the
country demanding freedom and faced the brutality of the security forces.
The Egyptian army took over on Thursday 10th of February ending a 30 year old
rule of Mubarak who stepped down on the next day (February 11th, 2011).
Constitution amendments after the 25 January revolution:
A committee was formed as per orders of the Egyptian Armed forces supreme
council to amend several articles of the Egyptian constitution and a referendum
was held on March 19, 2011 for the people to approve the amendments until an
assembly and presidential elections to be held in the same year.
Presidential election was held on May and June 2012 and Dr. Mohamed Morsy won
the runoff and became the president of Egypt for the next 4 years.
To have more information about the Egyptian political system go to the
following websites :
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