The assessment of the parliament’s legislative and supervisory performance during this study’s duration was the subject of many other studies, scientific analyses, and press investigations. Through a comprehensive analysis of the viewpoints and evaluations in this context, it is possible to infer a number of general remarks on this performance’s assessment:

1. Some remarks indicated the presence of an imbalance between the legislative and executive authorities and attributed it to several fundamental factors, some fixed and some changeable. The fixed factors were attributed to the power assigned by the constitution to the President of the Republic and consisting in—regarding the president’s relationship to the parliament—his right to propose laws that do not undergo the same procedures that apply to draft law proposals presented by members, his right to object to laws approved by the parliament (Cessation Right), and his right to amend the constitution, and finally his authority to issue decrees that have the force of law. The government also has the right to prepare draft laws and has the same privileges as the President of the Republic in this regard . As for the changeable factors, these relate to the parliament’s circumstances in terms of the political powers constituting it and their political weight .

2. The majority vote of the National Party within the parliament, which clearly emerged in the sixth (former) and seventh (current) legislative phases, has undoubtedly enabled it to control the legislative process. (The government’s reassurance about its reliance on a large majority in the parliament has been reflected in the ease with which it approached the process of quickly passing laws without serious critical discussion since it guarantees approval from the majority of members belonging to the National Party .

3. This remark is closely tied to the previous one because it relates to the larger number of draft laws proposed by the government compared to that proposed by members (draft law proposals). This remark was a common factor among all analyses that addressed, by way of commentary, the parliament’s legislative performance .

4. Most remarks indicated the weakness of members’ legislative initiative through practicing their right to propose draft laws, a right that is considered the prime legislative tool, or so it should be within the parliamentary democratic system. Though a deductive of the experiences of most of the world’s parliaments confirms the weakness of parliament members’ role in general in the legislative process, yet this role receives a larger share in the legislative order of advanced countries in which each parliament member has a specialized technical secretariat . The fact is that there are clear discrimination points endorsed by the legal framework governing the parliament’s legislative activity—as described by the constitution and by-laws to the interest of draft laws and against that of draft law proposals. This consists in the following:

• That draft law proposals have had to be subject to study by the Speaker of Parliament and to be referred to the Committee for Proposals and Complaints for studying them prior to submitting them to the parliament so that it can refer them to the specialized committee, a procedure involves a high extent of duplicity. As for the draft law, it is referred directly to the specialized committee.
• That the parliament’s by-laws oblige the Speaker of Parliament to notify the parliament of the draft laws returned to him in the first upcoming meeting so that they can be referred to the specialized committees. The parliament’s by-laws in fact give the parliament Speaker the right to refer these draft laws and then notify the parliament of doing so in the first meeting. However, by-laws do not oblige the parliament President with the same obligation in the case of draft law proposals .
• That the by-laws gave the draft law the priority as a foundation for discussion in the committee if that draft law is accompanied by draft law proposals that address the same topic and agree with it in principle.
• That according to the constitution, it is prohibited to submit a draft law proposal rejected by the parliament or withdrawn for another reason in the same assembly, while the same does not apply to draft laws.

The study relied on the research reports prepared by the parliament’s General Secretariat and covering seven full sessions (the sixth legislative phase and the first and second sessions of the seventh phase) to analyze the mechanism of proposing draft laws in the parliament and reached several important conclusions. At the forefront of these conclusions were the following: that the gap between the number of draft law proposals compared to that of draft laws is because most of the latter consist of draft laws of financial credits, budgets, and final budget accounts in addition to draft laws of petrol; that the required conditions for submitting or approving a draft law proposal (the required quorum for approving it) compared to the practice of several other parliaments is in the interest of the Egyptian parliament; finally, that the decreased rate of draft law proposals approved by the parliament is not particular to this specific parliament but is a phenomenon existent in many of the world’s parliaments. However, the problem seems difficult in attempting to specify the number of draft law proposals submitted by members since some of these draft law proposals cannot be enforced .

5. One of the criticisms of the parliament was its hastiness in promulgating laws, particularly in the last period prior to adjourning the session with the crucial political (and sometimes security) significance of some laws, an importance that requires thorough study prior to approval. The campaign of severe attack on the parliament in this regard was led by the strategic report published by the Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Al-Ahram in 1998 while commenting on the parliament’s performance in the third regular session of the seventh legislative phase.

The parliament’s Center for Parliamentary Studies responded to the severe criticism targeting it by a scientific study asserting a number of objective and by-law facts disregarded by the strategic report. Of these facts is that hastily examining draft laws does not mean discussing them in one meeting. Instead, it is acceptable according to the text of Article 153 of the parliament’s by-laws that the final vote on the draft law be made in the same meeting in which it is approved. The parliament’s response also pointed out the wide discussions which the draft laws have received and in which members from all orientations and party affiliations participate, which means that the parliament’s role is not only to pass the laws proposed by the government .

6. The parliament has played a crucial role in forming the legislative system, which paves the way for and accompanies economic reform, particularly with the concurrence of the launch of the reform program with the parliament’s sixth legislative phase, and the concurrence of this program’s second stage with the onset of the seventh (current) legislative phase. This has undoubtedly required approving a bundle of needed legislations that tend to the societal dimension in reform policies and minimize the side effects of privatization. Accompanying this was the expansion of the parliament’s role in forming economic policy .

7. One of the criticisms of the parliament was its excessive ordainment of new laws and amendment of existent laws in a manner that makes it a main agents in the legislation overflow and legislative explosion problem, from which those working in the legal field suffer in Egypt (from lawyers to judges to others), to the extent that the First Justice Conference held in 1986 appointed a special committee for studying this overflow and its corresponding problems and results .

8. It was natural that the study duration (which extended from 1999-2000 and which witnessed fundamental changes in Egypt’s political, economic, and social atmosphere and in the government’s economic orientation) be accompanied by approving a number of crucial draft laws, some of which constituted prominent landmarks in Egypt’s legal development, such as the commerce code, which had been in effect since 1883 and which had included 772 Articles and received wide discussion prior to its approval . Some draft laws generated wide debate inside the parliament and among the general public, such as the draft law on civic organizations , the draft law on the landlord-tenant relationship. This is in addition to a large number of draft laws linked to the privatization trend such as: the draft law which permits the private sector to construct and operate new airports , the draft law on regulating the private sector’s participation in public sector banks , and the emergency law.

One may add to the above that some laws approved by the parliament did not receive wide mass approval or even raised wide fears due to the negative results they might cause. An example of these laws is the unified law of professional syndicates, which was characterized by extreme importance due to its effect on professional syndicate organizations, which acquired much importance ever since the beginning of the political pluralism era in Egypt in 1976. Another example is law no. 93 of year 1995 on the press, which raised severe reactions opposing it, particularly since it was issued without consulting the Press Syndicate, the official representative body for Egyptian journalists . A third example is the law of agricultural leases no. 96 of 1992 .

9. Some analyses called for the need to actualize the legislative role of the parliament’s specialized committees since they are the true brewery in which the parliament exercises its legislative role .

10. Some viewpoints noted that raising the competence of the parliament’s legislative and supervisory performance entirely depends on amending the parliament’s by-laws as well as lifting the restrictions covered in the by-laws and which lead to tipping the balance between members’ exercise of the legislative and supervisory functions. This is in addition to examining the prospect of founding a special elected committee specialized in examining the by-laws at the beginning of every legislative phase to ensure by-law compatibility with political, economic, and social development and societal conditions .

11. Many analyses that tracked the parliament’ s performance addressed the absence of parliament members during the parliament’s meetings, which necessarily reflects negatively on the parliament’s practice of its legislative and supervisory functions and causes a large imbalance in the nature of decisions taken by the parliament (for voting on different legislations in any political system requires the fulfillment of a particular quorum of members, or else the decisions and legislations approved by the parliament are not characterized by sufficient legality) .

12. Some writings undertook a detailed analysis of the social and political forces represented in the parliament during a particular time period such as an assembly or legislative phase .