555 foreign correspondents ask to cover amendments referendum

CAIRO – 16 April 2019: Head of the State Information Service’s (SIS) operations room Mohamed Imam confirmed that the authority received requests from 555 foreign correspondents to obtain permits to cover the referendum on constitutional amendments.

Imam told Egypt Today on Tuesday that those 555 foreign correspondents represent satellite channels, agencies and foreign newspapers.

He added that the operations room will be in constant contact with the National Elections Commission to facilitate the foreign correspondents' mission.

On April 14, the parliamentary legislative subcommittee, headed by Parliament Speaker Ali Abdel Aal, approved a set of proposed constitutional amendments paving the way for the Parliament to hold a final vote on them on Tuesday, April 16.

The approved amendments expand each of the two presidential terms allowed for any president to six years instead of four, while a separate transitional article gives an exceptional right to incumbent President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, who was re-elected in 2018, to run for a third 6-year term after he finishes his second term in 2024 instead of 2022.

Meanwhile, Egypt’s National Election Authority (NEA) denied reports on social media claiming that a public referendum on the proposed constitutional amendmentswill be held next week.

NEA Vice-President Helmy al-Sherif said that the schedule of the public referendum on the constitutional amendments has not yet been set, saying that the social media reports are “groundless".