The House of Representatives has approved President Abdel Fattah al-
Sisi’s Resolution No. 20 of 2020 regarding the extension of the state of
emergency throughout the country for a new period of three months,
starting at 1am on Monday January 27, until 1am on April 27.
The decision to extend the state of emergency is the twelfth in a row
since its imposition on April 10, 2017.
This represents an outright circumvention of the constitution, which
stipulates that emergency law be declared for only six consecutive
months.
Parliament Speaker Ali Abdel Aal violated the provisions of the
constitution when he announced the parliament’s approval to extend
the state of emergency without the two-thirds majority needed to
support the decision in the hall.
He also failed to invite the General Committee in Parliament to convene
to consider the extension decision, before proceeding to the final vote on
the decision in the plenary session, in contravention of the provisions of
the bylaw regulating the work of the council.
Security services took advantage of the emergency law to abuse political
opponents and journalists by arresting them and referring them to the
Supreme State Security Court.
Emergency law states that is not permissible to appeal the rulings issued
by it.