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		</div><p>Egypt’s first legislature in more than three years, a 596-seat chamber packed with supporters of president Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, has convened.</p>
<p>The assembly, elected in November and December, is also the first elected chamber since el-Sissi, as military chief, led the ousting of president Mohammed Morsi in 2013 following massive protests against the Islamist leader and his Muslim Brotherhood.</p>
<p>Sunday’s session is mostly a procedural one, with lawmakers taking the oath in turn.</p>
<p>The chamber is also expected to elect a speaker and two deputies.</p>
<p>The last parliament was dominated by Islamists and dissolved by a court ruling in 2012.</p>
<p>The new chamber’s first task will be to ratify some 300 presidential decrees issued by el-Sissi since taking office in June 2014 and interim president Adly Mansour before him.</p>
<p>The decrees include a law severely restricting street demonstrations and a terror law that curbs press freedoms and gives police vast powers.</p>
<p>After Morsi’s overthrow, El-Sissi announced three steps to take Egypt back to democratic rule – the adoption of a new constitution and presidential and parliamentary elections.</p>
<p>But the process has unfolded against the backdrop of a harsh crackdown on Islamists and other dissidents that has seen thousands jailed.</p>
<p>The Muslim Brotherhood, which swept every election following the 2011 uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak, is officially branded a terrorist group.Turnout for last year’s parliamentary elections was around 30%, and most of those elected to the assembly support the president.</p>
<p>Egypt is grappling with an increasingly potent Islamist insurgency centred in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, which claimed the downing of a Russian passenger plane over Sinai in October that killed all 224 people on board and led to widespread flight cancellations, dealing a major blow to the vital tourism industry.</p>
<p>Egypt’s economy is barely staying afloat, with its local currency under pressure, tourism battered from years of turmoil and inflation at nearly 11%.</p>
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