Egypt’s Parliament Holds First Session Since Revolution

Egypt’s lower house of parliament, the People’s Assembly, met for the first time today since the fall of President Hosni Mubarak in February. The first session came just days after the official results of parliamentary elections were released. Of the parliament’s 498 open seats, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice party won 45 percent, followed by the conservative Salafi Al Nour party with 22 percent, and the liberal Al Wafd party with 7 percent. A further ten seats went to  members of parliament (MPs) appointed by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), among whom were a number of women and Coptic Christians. Freedom and Justice MP Saad Al Katatni was elected Egypt’s first post-revolution Speaker of Parliament, with deputy-speaker posts expected to go to Al Nour and Al Wafd MPs as part of a power-sharing deal. The powers of the new People’s Assembly are ambiguous, but its main concern in the coming weeks will be selecting members of the 100-member constitutional committee that will draft Egypt’s next constitution.

Writing for the New York Times, Robert Worth profiles the Muslim Brotherhood’s rising star Mohammed Baltagy, the secretary general of the Freedom and Justice party. Worth argues that “Beltagy has come to personify the Muslim Brotherhood’s identity crisis as it moves, after decades underground, to become the dominant political group in Egypt.” During the January 25 revolution, Baltagy was the only Brotherhood leader to remain full-time in Tahrir Square, and he raised his profile further by joining the Gaza flotilla raided by the Israeli military. But Baltagy’s outspokenness and independence vexed the group’s more conservative leaders; Beltagy criticized the Brotherhood for its refusal to demonstrate against the SCAF, and has called for  an immediate transfer of power to civilians, defying the Brotherhood-approved transition schedule. This week marks the revolution’s one-year anniversary, and liberal groups again plan to demonstrate across Egypt. But despite liberal mobilization, Worth argues “that only the Islamists have the power to face down Egypt’s military and deliver a more democratic government.”