Egypt’s House of Representatives decided on Monday to halt the live airing of its sessions after electing the Wafd Party’s Suleiman Wahdan as the second deputy to chamber speaker Ali Abdelaal.
The decision to halt the broadcasting of sessions was submitted by 40 MPs and was applauded and accepted by all MPs in parliament.
There had been conflicting reports over the airing of the sessions before the chamber held its inaugural session on Sunday and aired the event in full. But oath breaches and other blunders were met with both sarcasm and criticism from public followers.
Wahdan becomes the second deputy following the election of al-Sayyed al-Sharif on Sunday during the parliament’s inaugural session. He won in a vote against his contender, Alaa Abdel Moneim, a member of the Support Egypt bloc, an alliance of at least 400 parliamentarians.
Mostafa Bakry, a journalist close to Egypt’s presidency and an MP, hailed Wahdan’s victory as “an end to an era of monopoly”.
A video circulated by news reports showed Bakry walking angrily out of the parliament’s hall, announcing that he broke ties with the Support Egypt bloc after he failed to win its leadership.
Also on Monday, Abdelaal approved the creation of 19 specific committees to review laws adopted by Egypt’s presidency during the parliament’s 3-year absence.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
