Egypt’s parliament on Tuesday passed the extension of the current state of emergency with a comfortable majority for an additional three months, after President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi issued a decree to extend the period last week.
Parliament Speaker Ali Abdel Aal said that he received on January 3 the presidential decree to put it up for voting on the parliament, adding that over two-thirds of the MPs voted in favor of the extension in Tuesday’s general session.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi issued a presidential decree last week extending the state of emergency across the country for a period of three months starting from 1 am on January 13.
This is the third time the state of emergency has been renewed since it was imposed on April 10 after the terrorist attacks on two churches in Tanta and Alexandria. The attacks left approximately 45 people dead.
The emergency state was renewed last July after the approval of the House of Representatives, and the president issued a decree to renew it again in October.
Local and international critics of the government have argued that the emergency law is being used as a pretext by the country’s security apparatuses to further a crackdown on non-violent dissent, including non-governmental organizations, secular activists and independent media outlets.
Article 154 from the 2014 constitution grants Sisi the right to extend the emergency period for 90 days following its implementation, as long as this decision receives a two-thirds majority from MPs who have seven days to review the measure.
The decree is to be implemented after the approval of the House of Representatives.
Under the state of emergency, the president has the right to restrict freedoms of assembly, movement, residency, and also has the right to monitor messages of any kind, as well as newspapers, leaflets and publications. The president can also review all kinds of advertising before publishing, confiscate them, closing the places where they are printed, setting the dates for the opening and closing of public shops, and order the evacuation or isolation of certain areas.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
