Parliament to vote on prolonging rule of president

CAIRO — Egypt’s parliament has accelerated voting on proposed constitutional amendments that would allow President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi to stay in office beyond his current term, which ends in 2022.

Lawmakers will decide Wednesday on whether to send the amendments to the legislative committee, a vote that was initially scheduled for Feb. 17, said parliament spokesman Ahmed Saad el-Din.

The legislative committee will have 60 days to discuss the amendments before a final vote. If approved, the amendments would be put to a national referendum.

The development comes despite concerns that Egypt is slipping back into authoritarianism, eight years after a prodemocracy uprising ended autocrat Hosni Mubarak’s nearly three-decade rule.

El-Sissi led the 2013 military overthrow of elected but divisive Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, and was elected the following year. Since then, he has presided over an unprecedented crackdown on dissent, and was re-elected last year after all potentially serious challengers were jailed or pressured to exit the race.

The assembly had given its preliminary approval to the changes last week. The motion is near-certain to be approved by the legislature, packed with el-Sissi’s supporters.

Pro-government figures have been lobbying for months that two terms are not enough for el-Sissi to fulfill his vision of modernizing the country.

Yasser Rizq, chairman of the state-owned al-Akhbar daily and a close confidant of el-Sisi, argued that the amendments were necessary to prevent Islamists from gaining power. He said he expects the referendum to take place before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. This year, Ramdan is expected to start in May.