House of Representatives (Egypt)

The House of Representatives is the lower house of Egypt's bicameral parliament, with the Egyptian Senate serving as the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under the Article 101 in Chapter Five of the Egyptian Constitution in enumerated matters to pass or defeat government legislation, approve the general policy of the state, the general plan for economic and social development, and the state’s general budget, and exercise oversight over the actions of the executive authority, all as outlined in the constitution.

Members of the House serve a fixed term of five years, with each seat up for election before the start of the next Congress. Special elections may also occur in the case of a vacancy. The House of Representatives consists of at least 450 members elected by direct, secret, universal suffrage, with voting supervised by members of the judiciary. In addition, the President of the Republic appoints a number of members not exceeding 5%.

The Republic is divided into four electoral districts for elections using the absolute closed-list proportional representation system and 143 electoral districts for elections using the single-member constituency system. The number of seats allocated to the single-member constituency system is 448, and 120 seats are allocated to party lists, in addition to a maximum of 28 seats appointed by the president of the Republic.

The Speaker of the House of Representatives is elected from among its members who have won seats in the parliamentary session. A general assembly of the House convenes to elect the speaker.