The Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, is putting the final touches on an agreement with other political forces concerning who will become parliament speaker and his two deputies.
Sources at the party told Al-Masry Al-Youm that the FJP has agreed with influential political forces in parliament to nominate party Secretary General Mohamed Saad al-Katatny for parliament speaker.
They also agreed to have an MP from the Wafd Party, along with an MP from Salafi-oriented Nour Party, to serve as deputies.
The FJP will control close to half the seats in the first Egyptian parliament elected since an uprising swept Hosni Mubarak from power last year. The party has secured 232 seats, or 46 percent, of the lower house.
The more hardline Nour Party, which advocates the strict application of Islamic law, has emerged with 113 seats, or 23 percent, putting Islamists of different stripes in control of more than two-thirds of the chamber, according to official figures.
Those figures may increase after all the votes are counted.
The Wafd Party came in third with 9 percent.
The sources added that it was agreed that FJP would head seven or eight parliamentary committees, the Nour Party three to four, the Wafd Party three, the Egyptian Bloc two and other parties another two.
Under the former president, all the leading positions in parliament were monopolized by the now-dissolved National Democratic Party (NDP).
Translated from Al-Masry Al-Youm
