Egypt has offered humanity the oldest political system ever. Along the River Nile’s bank, the first central, unified state in the world was formed. Egypt had the precedence in creating the life of a whole nation through the formation of organizational frameworks that had an important role in maintaining the values of democracy and freedom. Egypt’s permanent constitution (issued in September 1971and later amended on May 22 1980) regulates the State’s political system and determines general authorities and reference terms. The Egyptian constitution hereby enforces the pillars of the democratic, parliamentary system, stresses the supremacy of the law and the independence of judicial authorities based on the basic fundamentals of Islamic Sharia’a (Islamic laws) and Arabic as the official language of Egypt. The Egyptian political system entails six authorities: legislative, executive, judiciary, press, political parties, local administration and civil society organizations.
First: Legislative Authorities
The People’s Assembly (Parliament): The People’s Assembly exercises the legislative power and approves the State’s general policy. The assembly’s current term involves 454 members, 10 of whom are appointed by the Egyptian President. The elected members to The People’s Assembly must be at least 350 members. At least half of the Assembly’s members must belong to workers and peasants. The duration of the People’s Assembly term is five years starting from the date of its first meeting. Elections for the renewal of the Assembly shall take place within the sixty days preceding the termination of its term. During the latest parliamentary elections in October/November 2004, Egypt has applied judicial supervision on all polling stations throughout the three stages of the elections. The People’s Assembly carries out its legislative and supervisory missions through 18 committees consist of the Constitutional and Legislative, Planning and Budgeting,