The previous parliament did little more than rubber stamp legislation
presented by Mr Mubarak’s ministers. The new assembly is unlikely to be
as pliant.
Dozens of new parliamentarians attended the first session wearing
bright yellow sashes printed with the message “No to Military Trials for
Civilians.”, referring to the thousands of Egyptians who have been
tried in military courts by the country’s interim military rulers.
The inauguration began with a prayer to the hundreds of Egyptians who died during the revolution.
“I invite the distinguished assembly to stand and read the fatiha
(Muslim prayer) in memory of the martyrs of the January 25 revolution
... because the blood of the martyrs is what brought this day,” said
Mahmoud al-Saqa, 81, a member of the liberal Wafd party, who as oldest
member of the house acted as speaker.
One by one members of the new assembly, answering a roll call, took the
microphone to vow to protect the republican system, the interests of
the people and “to respect the constitution and the law.”
However, controversy erupted when Mamdouh Ismail, an Islamist deputy
from a small Salafi party, added the qualifying phrase “in whatever does
not contradict God’s law”, prompting a rebuke from the speaker who
asked him to stick to the original text.
Numerous Salafi deputies tried to add similar phrases to their vows,
but with almost perfect timing the speaker’s assistant cut them off
before they could add the phrase.
Those still determined to slip the phrase in began their vow with it.
The assembly is dominated by Islamists who, after decades of repression
by the country’s former rulers, captured almost two-thirds of the seats
in elections late last year.
Deputies from Freedom and Justice, the political arm of the Muslim
Brotherhood, form the largest bloc in the new parliament with 46 per
cent of the seats. Nour, a party formed last year by ultraconservative
Salafi Islamists, has a quarter of the seats.
The Salafi’s electoral gains were the biggest surprise of the Egyptian
election. Their strong showing has discomfited the Muslim Brotherhood,
which fears they will try to out flank them on Islamic grounds, dragging
them into hardline positions that could rattle Egypt’s foreign partners
or the army.
Unlike the Brotherhood, the Salafis want Egypt’s new constitution – to
be drafted by a committee selected by parliament – to stipulate the full
implementation of Islamic law.
Once the parliamentarians were sworn in, the session degenerated into a
shouting match over procedures to choose the speaker of the house.
The FJP had agreed with other main political forces ahead of the
inaugural session to appoint Saad al-Katatni, one of its senior
officials, to the post.
However, other candidates noisily insisted on the right to address the parliament and present themselves to the assembly.
Mr Katatni was duly elected speaker and in his acceptance speech
thanked the military council for keeping its promise to hold elections.
He vowed “the revolution continues” – a reference to the slogan of
protesters determined to unleash another wave of demonstrations against
the ruling military council.
“We will not be content until all the aims of the revolution have been
realised,” he said. “We will avenge the martyrs [killed during the
uprising against Mr Mubarak] through fair, effective and fast trials and
we will rebuild Egypt as a national, democratic, constitutional and
modern state.”
The country’s military rulers had brought forward by more than a month
the date of the opening session in a bid to sideline activists
organising anniversary protests on January 25 aimed at pressing the
generals to hand over power to civilians immediately.
About 200 protesters demonstrated in front of parliament chanting “we
want bread, freedom and social justice” and “down with military rule,
down with Mubarak; we are back to the days of Mubarak”.
