Speaker of the People's Assembly Dr. Ahmed Fathi Sorour who doubles as member of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) Political Bureau, said that the Article 88 of the Constitution, including its amendments, will be applied on the Shura Council's mid term elections, expected to run in next june.

The Terrorism Combat Act will not be a copy of the Emergence Law, but if it an alternative, and is expected to be issued before June 2008, the deadline already determined by the People's Assembly to rescind the state of emergency, said the House Speaker.

This came during the ruling NDP Secretariat Conference in Cairo under Dr. Mohamed Al-Ghamrawi, the NDP secretary in Cairo last Wednesday.

There will be no amendment to the constitutional preamble which appears in the introduction of the Constitution because it is a historic document, he said.

The document has been first laid down concurrent with the 1971 Constitution, said Dr. Sorour.

He referred that there was no articles at the Egyptian Constitution stipulating the necessity of appointing a vice president by the President of the Republic, and such a matter was constitutional.

The People's Assembly starts on Sunday debating a report by the Constitutional and Legislative Committee on the president of the republic's proposal to amend 34 articles of the constitution.

The parliament had approved in principle, after five sessions of debates, the amendments.

The speaker of the People's Assembly, Ahmed Fathi Sorour, received 109 proposals presented by MPs belonging to the National Democratic Party, 99 by independents, four proposals presented by Al-Wafd party in addition to opinions of 14 other parties and public figures.

The report pointed out that the amendments were part of President Hosni Mubarak's keenness on deepening democratic practice and giving momentum to the reform and development process in Egypt.