Only 35 pct. of Egyptians satisfied with parliament performance – poll

Saturday 28-05-2016 03:25 PM

Egypt's parliament, the House of Representatives. ASWAT MASRIYA

CAIRO, May 28 (Aswat Masriya) – Only 35 per cent of Egypt’s citizens have shown approval of the parliament’s performance, while 31 per cent have shown disapproval and 33 per cent were undecided, according to a poll.

Baseera, the Egyptian Centre for Public Opinion Research, said in a poll released on Saturday that poll results showed that 39 per cent approved of the performance of the representatives of their own districts, while 27 per cent did not approve and 33 per cent said they did not know.

Baseera’s director Maged Othman, who is also a former cabinet minister of communications and information technology, said that among those who approved of the parliament’s performance, 43 per cent were holders of lower to intermediate education, but the ratio goes down to 20 per cent in the case of those holding higher degrees.

Respondents aged between 30 and 49 years old recorded a 30 per cent approval rate, compared to 36 per cent for those aged 18-29 and 42 per cent for those above 50 years old.

The poll also showed that the approval rate is higher in the countryside (49 per cent) compared to the cities (29 per cent), due to the fact that people in the countryside usually know their representatives on a personal level which helps them better evaluate their performance, Othman added.

The poll was conducted using both mobile phones and landlines on a sample of 1,541 citizens aged 18 years and above, and covering all provinces, according to Baseera’s statement.

Egypt’s unicameral parliament first convened in January of this year after elections that lasted for three months in late 2015.

The parliament’s election marked the last step in the "roadmap to democracy" that was announced by then-Defence Minister Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in 2013 after he led the military ouster of former president Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood following mass protests against Mursi's rule.

Sisi became president in 2014 after he made a sweeping victory in the presidential election. He possessed both executive and legislative powers before the current parliament was elected.  

The inauguration of the House of Representatives came after a gap that lasted more than three years. The previous parliament was dissolved in 2012 by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which ruled the country at the time during a transitional period that followed the 2011 ouster of long-serving president Hosni Mubarak amid a popular uprising.

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