CAIRO – 17 April 2019: Egypt’s Parliament, House of Representatives, approved Tuesday a draft report of a number of constitutional amendments presented earlier by its legislative committee, accrediting the state’s National Elections Authority (NEA) to declare a public referendum.
National Election Authority announced that the planned public referendum on the constitutional amendments will take place over 3 days starting April 19 for Egyptian expats, while locals inside the country shall vote from April 20 to 22.
Among the constitutional amendments are the articles concerning the duration of the presidency; Paragraph 1 of Article 140 in the 2014 Constitution stated that “The president of the republic shall be elected for four Gregorian years starting on the day following the expiry of his predecessor's term, and cannot be reelected except for only one time.”
The amendments in this article -that have been approved by the Parliament and will soon be subject to a public referendum- are: “The president of the republic shall be elected for a term of six Gregorian years, starting on the day following the expiry of his predecessor's term, and may not hold office for more than two consecutive terms.”
The House of Representatives also approved Article 241 bis which states: "The current term of the President of the Republic shall expire at the end of six years from the date of his election as President of the Republic in 2018. He may be re-elected another term."
Which means that the presidency of the incumbent President, Abd El Fatah Al-Sisi will end on 2024, and he can then be re-elected for another single period that shall end on 2030.
Find below the constitutional amendments approved by the Parliament:
Article 140, Paragraph 1
Before:The president of the republic shall be elected for four Gregorian years starting on the day following the expiry of his predecessor's term, and cannot be reelected except for only one time.
After:The president of the republic shall be elected for a term of six Gregorian years, starting on the day following the expiry of his predecessor's term, and may not hold office for more than two consecutive terms.
Article 241 bis
The term of the incumbent President of the Republic expires at the end of six years from the date of the announcement of his election as President of the Republic in 2018, and may be re-elected another term.
Wed, Apr. 17, 2019
