The first ordinary session of Egypt’s House of Representatives in its third legislative term ended on July 22, 2026, with the chamber’s approval, after approximately six months of work beginning with its inaugural sitting on January 12. According to the House’s account of its work, it held 30 plenary sittings lasting a total of 102 hours, approved 162 laws, and heard 1,525 interventions from 395 members. This first session, which began in January, must be distinguished from the normal annual session beginning in October. The House’s official record dates its inaugural sitting to January 12, 2026.
On July 28, the Official Gazette, issue 29 bis D, published Presidential Decree No. 302 of 2026 bringing the first ordinary session of the third legislative term to a close, effective Thursday, July 23, 2026, corresponding to 9 Safar 1448 in the Hijri calendar.
Despite approving 162 laws during the session, the House concluded its work without resolving several contentious bills discussed in preceding months. These included personal status legislation for Muslims and Christians and the local administration bill, alongside other proposals whose consideration or passage had not been completed before the session ended.
The House’s rules of procedure set the framework for an ordinary session. Article 274 provides that it should last at least nine months, unless the House began its work at a date that makes that duration impossible. The president closes the session with the House’s approval, and it cannot be closed before the state budget has been approved. This exception concerning the starting date must not be confused with a claim that the first session actually lasted nine months. Nor does the end of an annual session mean that the legislative term, or members’ mandates, has ended. The distinction has direct consequences for bills that remain unresolved.
Article 115 of the Constitution requires the president to convene the House for its ordinary annual session before the first Thursday in October. If no invitation is issued, it convenes automatically on that date. The constitutional text establishes when parliament meets; it does not itself set the list or sequence of bills that it will consider.
As the second ordinary session of the third legislative term approaches, the question is therefore about more than the fate of unfinished bills carried over from the previous session. What will the new legislative agenda contain? Which laws will the House prioritize? Which measures does the government want passed quickly? Which proposals remain in committees without reaching the plenary chamber? Are other bills being prepared without having been announced? And who, ultimately, sets these priorities and determines their order?
Who controls the legislative timetable?
Abla El-Hawary, a member of the House’s Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee, believes several bills should have been prioritized during the first session. In her assessment, public controversy surrounding particular measures, especially personal status legislation, helped push less contentious laws ahead of them.
“In the third legislative term, there were extremely important laws that should have been prioritized and presented during the first session, but the confusion and controversy surrounding them stood in the way,” El-Hawary tells Zawia3. She suggests that the broad public debate over personal status legislation may have encouraged lawmakers to give precedence to measures on which there was greater agreement and which, as she puts it, were consistent with the Constitution and public opinion.
El-Hawary expects local administration legislation to be among the priorities of the second session. She points to President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s previous remarks about completing the state’s institutions through local councils. The coming session may, she believes, bring a clearer push on the local administration bill, particularly after a special committee was formed in the first session to study it and develop proposals for its provisions.
She also expects personal status legislation to receive priority, given the controversy over some of its provisions during consultations and public discussion. A unified bill to combat violence against women “may have a role” in the coming period as well, she says. She stresses that these are possible priorities and expectations, rather than a fixed timetable for passing the measures.
Asked who determines which bills are presented to the House first, El-Hawary explains that the Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee examines proposals referred to it and scrutinizes their wording before completing its deliberations. Its members do not, however, decide when a particular bill will be placed before the chamber. In her account, that scheduling role belongs to the House Bureau.
She reiterates that committee members do not control the order or dates of plenary consideration. The Bureau consists of the speaker and two deputy speakers, with its composition and powers governed by law and the House’s rules. Specialized committees study and debate the bills referred to them, checking their substance and drafting, without themselves deciding when those bills appear on the plenary agenda.
Article 18 of the rules assigns the Bureau responsibility for preparing, at the start of each ordinary session, a plan for the activities of the House and its committees to ensure that work proceeds regularly. The plan goes to the General Committee for approval. Article 20 also assigns the Bureau the preparation of sitting agendas under that plan, taking account of priority for bills whose committee examination is complete and for important current matters. An MP’s desire to debate a particular proposal is consequently not a decision to place it before a specific sitting. Agreement among several MPs on its importance is likewise not an official announcement of when it will pass. Political proposals, committee referral, completion of a report, and plenary debate and voting remain distinct stages.
Unfinished bills, but no announced agenda
The end of a session does not necessarily cause every bill still under examination or discussion to lapse. A proposal’s fate depends on who introduced it, how far it has progressed, whether the House has begun debating it, and whether the relevant break is between annual sessions or between entire legislative terms.
Under Article 179 of the rules, specialized committees automatically resume examining unfinished bills at the start of each ordinary session, without requiring a fresh procedural step. Reports on bills and legislative proposals whose consideration began in a previous session are taken up where they stood, unless the House sends them back to committee for a new report. Article 179 was amended by Law No. 136 of 2021. These rules therefore need to be read in light of that amendment, rather than solely through the rules’ original 2016 wording.
Bills introduced by one-tenth of House members lapse at the end of the legislative term in which they were submitted, or if all their sponsors withdraw them, unless the House has already begun debating them. Once such a bill has been referred to the relevant committee, an individual sponsor’s departure from parliament or withdrawal does not stop the proceedings.
After a cabinet reshuffle, the prime minister may ask for consideration of some or all government bills to be postponed for no more than 30 days, provided the House has not begun debating them. If debate has already begun, the request is put before the House, which decides whether to return the proposal to the government or resume considering it in its existing state.
When an entirely new legislative term begins, rather than simply another annual session, Article 180 governs unfinished proposals from the previous legislature. Within 15 days of the first session’s opening, the speaker notifies the prime minister of bills left unresolved. If the government does not request continued consideration within two months of that notification, the proposals cease to be pending. If it does, the House refers them to the relevant committee, which may rely on the previous committee’s report where one exists.
Irene Said, an MP from the Reform and Development Party, agrees with El-Hawary that the Bureau, comprising the speaker and the two deputies, sets the order in which legislation is presented. But she goes further, saying that the House has no officially announced legislative agenda and describing circulating priorities as “speculation and wishes.” The starting point, she says, is to complete previously announced proposals already referred to committees, unless new measures are referred during the next session.
Speaking to Zawia3, Said identifies personal status law, local development and building-violation reconciliation among the measures likely to attract attention because their enactment or amendment would directly affect citizens’ lives and their relationship with the government. She expects progress on personal status legislation in the new parliamentary year, while emphasizing its need for extensive study because of its broad impact. She believes reconciliation legislation needs amendment to address problems in implementation, and links local administration laws to completing the system of local government.
Said repeats that individual members do not determine the order of debate. In her assessment, priorities depend on how urgently a problem is being felt, the government’s needs and pressing public demands. Investment or company legislation may move ahead when the government considers it urgent, whereas laws affecting a wider range of people may take longer despite their importance.
Members can introduce proposals and participate in drafting them, she says, but they do not decide their timing or position on the agenda. She describes the rules as giving government bills priority over MPs’ proposals, although the latter may inform the final text. Communications and coordination may also precede a bill’s listing, she says, prompted by public pressure or an urgent government request.
Family law, local councils and building reconciliation
In the weeks before the first session ended, personal status legislation for Muslims and Christians generated broad controversy extending into parliament itself, drawing in politicians, rights advocates and organizations working on women’s issues. The Muslim personal status bill provoked sharp disagreement over some provisions. Al-Azhar said it had not participated in drafting the version under discussion and that the proposal had not been officially submitted to it before referral to parliament.
The Christian personal status bill prompted a different debate, despite the government’s preparation of the measure through approximately 35 committee meetings attended by representatives of the five denominations. Some people concerned with Coptic family affairs argued that the absence of wider consultation with ordinary Copts, and reliance on separate regulations for each church, could reproduce problems associated with the old framework.
During the first session, the government put forward family-related legislation, including personal status proposals affecting Christians and Muslims. Representatives of parties including al-Nour, al-Wafd, al-Adl, the Free Egyptians and the Homeland Defenders also put forward related bills and proposals. These initiatives differ in scope and procedural status: announcing a party proposal does not necessarily mean that its formal submission and referral to the relevant committee have been completed.
Hussein Hreidy, an al-Adl Party MP, places Muslim and Christian personal status legislation, building-violation reconciliation, local administration and local elections at the forefront of the measures he believes should receive priority in the coming session.
He tells Zawia3 that he hopes the personal status legislation for Muslims and Christians will lead the next session’s agenda, alongside reconciliation and local administration and election laws. These are, in his view, among the most important files that should be presented to the House in its new session.
Hreidy explains their importance through the unresolved problems affecting citizens. Some disputes and matters remain stalled because provisions of personal status legislation have not been settled, he says, leaving people waiting for parliament to act.
On building-violation reconciliation, Hreidy points to problems in the existing law that he believes require immediate amendment. Local administration and local election legislation is important, he argues, because Egypt still needs to complete its system of local government.
He also names freedom of information legislation among the measures he would like to see considered and passed in the next session, adding another item to the list of priorities advocated by individual parliamentarians.
Maha Abdel Nasser, an Egyptian Social Democratic Party MP, has announced the submission of a freedom of information bill during the final week of the first session. She said her party’s parliamentary bloc approved the proposal and that it secured the signatures of 60 MPs before being presented to the House.
Abdel Nasser expressed hope that the House would prioritize the bill in the coming session. Passing it would require action and pressure from journalists, MPs, civil society organizations and political parties, she said. She added that the government might prepare a parallel proposal, after which the two texts could be examined and discussed.
Meanwhile, discussion of local administration legislation has resumed against the background of presidential instructions to accelerate preparations for local council elections. Egypt has had no elected local councils since their dissolution by a court ruling in 2011 following the January 25 revolution. Article 242 of the 2014 Constitution required the gradual introduction of the constitutionally prescribed local administration system within five years of the Constitution taking effect, without prejudice to Article 180, which governs local council elections and composition. That period passed without the implementing legislation being enacted. Previous parliamentary sessions saw several proposals introduced, but none reached final passage.
During the first session of the third legislative term, initiatives multiplied again. The government presented its proposal, alongside measures introduced by individual MPs, including Amr Darwish and Mohamed Attia al-Fayoumi, before their referral to the Local Administration Committee. In April, Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee member Salah Fawzy suggested that finalizing the law was likely to be deferred until the next session. A subcommittee was formed to review the proposals and prepare a consolidated draft, the same committee El-Hawary referred to when discussing prospects for resolving the file in the coming session.
Between unfinished laws and an unclear legislative agenda, the convergence of the MPs interviewed by Zawia3 around personal status, local administration and reconciliation is an indication of shared concerns rather than a confirmed timetable. Their accounts show that specialized committees alone do not set the order of business; it passes through the Bureau and the procedures for listing issues on sitting agendas. As the second session in October approaches, attention turns to whether the files MPs repeatedly identify as important to citizens’ lives will reach debate and resolution, or remain among parliament’s unfinished measures.
