7 MPs run for parliament speaker

Seven parliament members said on Sunday that they will run for the post of speaker of the new parliament.

This came during the first procedural session of the parliament that started earlier in the day.

The nominated MPs include Ali Abdul Aal, Kamal Ahmed Mohamed, Ali al Moselhi, Tawfiq Okasha, Khalid Abu Talib, Eid Heikal and Mohamed Mahmoud al Etmani.

Speaker of the procedural session Bahaa Abu Shoqqa ordered forming a seven-member panel to supervise the election of the new parliament speaker.

Egyptian parliamentarians gathered inside the House of Representatives building in downtown Cairo earlier in the day to take the oath and begin the first parliamentary session, ending a four-year hiatus.

The MPs are divided into 448 independents, 120 party-based deputies, and 28 presidential appointees.

Lawyer Bahaa Abu Shoqa, 77, is the oldest parliamentarian, so, according to the parliament's regulations, was chosen as speaker of the first session until the rest of the MPs elect a speaker and two deputies.

Source: MENA