World News for Students of English

26-04-2019 15:00

​Nearly 90 per cent of Egyptian voters approved of granting President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi more parliamentary power.

The new amendments extend Egyptian presidents’ terms from four to six years, and they allow for a maximum of two terms. However, an article specific to El-Sissi extends his current four-year term to six, and it allows him to run again in 2024, meaning that he could stay in office until 2030. Sissi thanked the Egyptian people in a tweet on Tuesday, saying that the vote would be written down in Egyptian historical record.

All this comes as a surprise because in 2017, Sissi said that he would respect Egypt’s constitution, and he would not seek a third term. Last year, most voters re-elected him, which was not too surprising, as several rivals were either in jail or forced to quit.

Difficult words: approve (say ‘yes’), amendment (a new law based on a previous law), article (a specific text in a law).

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