CAIRO (AP) – In a raucous and tense meeting, Egyptian lawmakers on Sunday began reviewing a disputed 2016 agreement to hand control over two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia, a move critics say ignores a final ruling by a high court to annul the pact.
The ratification of the pact – an almost foregone conclusion if put to a vote by the 596-seat chamber packed with supporters of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi – could spark a repeat of the street protests that greeted the agreement when it was first announced in April 2016. It would likely also set the state’s legislative branch on a collision course with the judiciary. Last year’s protests, the biggest since el-Sissi took office in 2014, were foiled with the arrest of hundreds of protesters and activists, most of whom were later released.
Sunday’s meeting by the house’s powerful legislative and constitutional committee follows a January ruling by the Supreme Administrative Court that upheld a lower court verdict, declaring the agreement unconstitutional and void. Another senior tribunal, the Supreme Constitutional Court, is looking into a separate case to decide whether it is within the jurisdiction of the courts to decide the fate of the agreement.
Speaker Ali Abdel-Al, a staunch el-Sissi supporter who runs the house with an iron fist, struggled to keep order in the meeting, with committee members arguing over whether reviewing the agreement was appropriate given the January court ruling. There were also disputes over whether media should be permitted access to the chamber while the discussions were ongoing.
When some committee members insisted a procedural vote first be taken on whether the committee should review the pact, Abdel-Al declared a “yes” majority barely seconds after he had asked members to vote by a show of hands. When his tactic was loudly decried by some members, he threatened to expel anyone who spoke out of turn.