Constitution of the Kingdom of Egypt from 1930
The constitution of the Kingdom of Egypt from 1930 was the constitution of Egypt from 1930 to 1935. It was based on the constitution of 1923 , which was repealed in 1928 by the then King Fu'ad I. It was the tenth and final constitution of Egypt under the rule of the Muhammad Ali dynasty . It was formally valid in the British-Egyptian condominium Sudan , but did not anchor Egyptian claims to the area.
prehistory
From 1930 onwards, Egypt was also hit by the Great Depression . The foreign trade declined significantly and the country could barely cotton export. Industrial production also fell by more than 60%. There was brief hyperinflation and unemployment rose to a quarter of the population by 1935. The situation was particularly catastrophic for the farmers. Producer prices for agricultural products fell by 50% between 1929 and 1933, which reduced production and impoverished many people.
The big Wafd party , until then the defender of the constitutional order and guarantor of the economic upswing, fell into crisis. It was unable to fight the economic crisis effectively. King Fu'ad I then appointed Ismail Sedki Pasha as the new Prime Minister on June 20, 1930 . Ismail Sedki rejected the parliamentary democracy that had ruled since 1923 and advocated more political rights for the king. Fu'ad I. let him have his way and Sedki began to erode the previous democratic institutions in favor of royalty and government. In October 1930, after bloodily suppressed protests, Sedki issued a new reactionary constitution.
description
The constitution was not fundamentally different from the 1923 constitution. In fact, Sedki had only made a few constitutional changes. The political position of the king and the government was strengthened. The monarch now also had the right to appoint three instead of two fifths of the members of the Senate and could dissolve both houses of parliament, which he had previously been denied. The universal suffrage was replaced by a reactionary census suffrage , which was linked to a certain income limit and literacy , and was intended to prevent a future election victory of the Wafd party.
Override
In September 1933 the king dismissed Sedki after he had pushed him politically into the background following the example of Benito Mussolini , and commissioned Abdel Fattah Yahya Ibrahim Pascha to form a new government. This tried to continue the reactionary and repressive course, but failed because of the ever increasing foreign policy and economic problems. In November 1934, Fu'ad I. appointed Muhammad Tawfiq Nasim Pasha head of government and instructed him to form a transitional cabinet. On December 12, 1935, the 1930 constitution was repealed. The old constitution came into force shortly afterwards. The discredited king then did not participate in political life until his death in spring 1936. In May 1936, the Wafd party won a major electoral victory under his more liberal successor Faruq . She succeeded in completely restoring parliamentary democracy and in 1937 overcoming the global economic crisis. In terms of foreign policy, Egypt was secured by the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of August 26, 1936.
See also
literature
- Dolf Sternberger, Bernhard Vogel, Dieter Nohlen, Klaus Landfried (eds.): The election of parliaments and other state organs / Volume II: Africa: Political organization and representation in Africa De Gruyter, 1978, ISBN 978-3-11-004518-5 .