Cairo: Egyptian lawmakers have tabled proposed constitutional changes that would allow President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to extend his rule beyond 2022, legislators said.
The bill submitted on Sunday to speaker Ali Abdel Aal calls for several amendments to the constitution, including on the duration of presidential mandates currently limited to two four-year terms.
The lawmakers who put forward the amendments hope to extend the length of mandates to two six-year terms, which they say would allow Sisi to run for the presidency two more times after his second term expires in 2022.
That could see the former military chief ruling over Egypt until 2034.
The parliament's website said speaker Abdel Aal had received a "request from a fifth of the elected representatives (120 deputies out of the total 596) to amend certain articles of the constitution".
That number fulfils the quorum required for such a request.
A statement published later on the parliament's website outlined seven amendments that it said would address "severe deficiencies in determining the presidency term".
Terms would become six years instead of four years, since the current term length "isn't quite reasonable given the reality and the country's and region's circumstances", it said.
The revisions were aimed at supporting the parliamentary representation of women, youths, Christians, people with special needs and Egyptians in the diaspora, it added.
They would include "the establishment of a second chamber of parliament... and the creation of the post of vice president to assist the president in his duties," said the statement. The bill was submitted by the majority pro-government Support Egypt coalition along with some independents,
said Musatafa Bakri, one of the lawmakers who favours
the change.