Egypt passes quota law for women MPs

Egypt's parliament has passed a law allocating a quota of 64 seats in the lower house to women, in what a minister said on Monday was aimed at promoting their role in society. The new law adopted on Sunday will give women more than 12 percent of the seats in an expanded parliament after the next election due in 2010, Minister of Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Mufid Shehab said. It raises the total number of seats in the People's Assembly from 454 -- including 10 appointed by the president -- to 518. Nine women were elected to parliament in the last election in 2005.

President Hosni Mubarak's son Gamal, who is also the head of the ruling National Democratic Party's policies secretariat, announced the proposed new law earlier this month. Egyptian media have reported that Mubarak might dissolve parliament during the summer recess, which starts in July, in order to call new elections and elect a new batch of MPs in conformity with the new law. Mubarak's NDP controls the overwhelming majority of seats in parliament, where the main opposition grouping the Muslim Brotherhood also controls 20 percent of seats, although they must sit as independents.

AFP