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EGYPTIAN POLITICS GUIDEEgypt's System of Government: RepublicClick here for List of Egyptian Political Parties, Party WebsitesEgypt politics take place within the context of a government that, as of the February 2011 resignation of President Hosni Mubarak following several days of protests, is a republic under military rule. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the People's Assembly.Egypt was once a one-party state dominated by the National Democratic Party. Opposition parties are allowed, but have yet to gain any real power. According to the Constitution, Egypt political parties are allowed to exist, but religious political parties are not allowed as it would not respect the principle of non-interference of religion in politics and that religion has to remain in the private sphere to respect all beliefs. In addition, not allowed are political parties supporting militia formations or having an agenda that is contradictory to the constitution and its principles, or threatening the country's stability such as national unity between Muslim Egyptians and Christian Egyptians.
In April 2011, shortly after the arrest of former President Mubarak and in advance of planned September elections,
Egypt's Supreme Administrative Court ordered the dissolution of the National Democratic Party. As of December 2011,
the conservative Islamist Muslim Brotherhood and Salafi movements had claimed combined majority results in early
Parliamentary elections, raising concerned talk from Western observers of a slow-motion repeat of the 1979 Iranian
Revolution.
Sources: Associated Press, nytimes.com, wikipedia.org |