A member of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice party has been elected speaker of Egypt’s upper house of parliament. The move came as no surprise since the Islamists took control of 59 per cent of seats in the upper house (Shura Council) and 43% of seats in the lower house (People’s Assembly). Ahmad Fahmy’s counterpart in the lower house is Sa’ad El-Katatni, who serves as the Freedom and Justice party’s secretary general as well as the speaker of the Assembly. The next step for Egypt will come on Saturday when the two houses of parliament will field a 100-person assembly to draft a new constitution. The deputies to both speakers are members of hard-line Islamist parties.