Monitor: The 2026 budget has the lowest approval rate in the last five years
Monitor: The Charter and the Front have 100% alignment in their members' voting behavior
Monitor: A relative shift from regional to national discourse
Monitor: Notable rise in voting cohesion among members of parliamentary blocs
Monitor: The Front and the Charter lead the parliamentary blocs in high coherence of their discourse content
Monitor: 15 female parliamentarians supported the 2026 General Budget Law
Monitor: 104 meetings held by the Finance Committee to discuss the budget draft
Monitor: 43 recommendations made by the Finance Committee spread over 10 sectors
Monitor: 928 recommendations made by the deputies during budget discussions
Khaberni - Within the framework of monitoring the discussions of the House of Representatives on the 2026 Budget Law, the "Monitor" team working on parliamentary oversight analyzed the discussions and speeches of parliamentarians and their voting behavior on the 2026 budget law.
The report revealed that the Finance Committee held 104 meetings with all governmental bodies, which were attended by 62 parliamentarians outside the Finance Committee members, and the Finance Committee made 43 recommendations spread over 10 sectors, with the monetary and financial policy sector receiving the most recommendations, with a total of 11 followed by the investment, water, and agriculture sectors with 5 recommendations, and the tourism sector with 4 recommendations. The Monitor highlights the need to follow up on these recommendations and leverage the oversight and legislative tools available to the House of Representatives to ensure the implementation of these recommendations.
The Monitor team noted that the approval rate of the budget for the last five years shows that the 2026 budget had the lowest approval rate, at 62% of the total House members, while the 2025 budget was approved at 67%, the 2024 budget at 78%, the 2023 budget at 75%, and the 2022 budget at 70%.
Regarding the voting behavior of the parliamentarians, the budget was passed with an approval rate of 62% of all parliamentarians, and in terms of the voting behavior of the female parliamentarians, it was revealed that 15 female parliamentarians supported the passing of the General Budget, while 6 opposed it, and 4 were not present at the moment of voting. Moreover, the voting behavior of two assistants was not included in the methodology.
As for the cohesion of the voting behavior among the members of the parliamentary blocs, the report's findings indicated that the members of the Charter bloc and the Islamic Action Front bloc present at the moment of voting demonstrated voting cohesion at a rate of 100%, followed by the Initiative bloc with 96% cohesion, then the Azm bloc with 95% cohesion, and finally the Union of Central and Islamic National Parties bloc at 83%, noting that the assistants to the president were excluded from the cohesion methodology.
Based on the methodology developed by the Al-Hayat Center - Monitor in preparing this report, the political analysis of the general budget discussions, which relies on the cohesion index and political positioning index, revealed variances in the internal cohesion levels among the five parliamentary blocs. The analysis showed that the Islamic Action Front and the National Charter Party recorded the highest levels of cohesion and the lowest levels of dispersion in positions, followed by Azm and Initiative, with the Union of Central Parties coming in last in terms of internal cohesion, primarily due to the clarity of their political identity and the strength of their leadership references, not due to the number of deputies or the intensity of the discourse used within the council.
The analysis also shows that all the blocs operate within the constitutional framework, but with different patterns; as per the analysis outputs, the parliamentary blocs were characterized as follows: Institutional loyalty opposition for the Front, combining sharp criticism with constitutional commitment, while the Charter adopts a loyal reformist discourse that links change to stability, both Azm and Initiative adopt a reformative programmatic approach, while the discourse of the Union of Central and Islamic National Parties bloc is characterized by a broad coalition nature and is less cohesive. The objective analysis, based on quantitative and qualitative indicators, confirms that increased cohesion within the parliamentary blocs enhances political predictability and effectiveness, thereby establishing the parliament as a stable reform space, moving away from the traditional dualism between loyalty and opposition.
Regarding the subsidiary axes based on the analysis of the deputies' speeches, which totaled 87 sub-axes, criticism of public debt was raised by 69.05% of the speaking deputies, investment policies criticized by 38.1% of the deputies, while 77% of the deputies discussed the need to improve government performance in all areas, 36.5% of the deputies called for enhancing youth empowerment in entrepreneurial projects, and 23% of the deputies called for enhancing public freedoms, 72% of the deputies discussed the importance of job creation to reduce unemployment, and regarding the nature of the recommendations presented by parliamentarians during the discussions of the General Budget Law for 2026, a deep analysis by the Monitor team showed a high volume of national policies over regional ones, reflecting the general nature of the budget discussions, where the total national recommendations reached 634, mainly concentrated in economic, financial, and reformative issues, with the economic axis leading these recommendations by 48.6%, followed by the administrative modernization and corruption combating at 19.6%, and the social sector at 13.6%.
In comparison, regional recommendations totaled 294, mainly concentrated in the development and services axis at 43.5%, followed by the economic axis at 25.9%, then the employment and labor sector at 9.5% of the total recommendations, followed by the local administration sector at 8.2%, then the social sector at 5.8%.
When comparing the recommendations presented during the discussions of the 2025 General Budget, which totaled 476 recommendations distributed between 54% national and 46% regional recommendations, with the recommendations presented during the discussions of the 2026 budget, a noticeable increase in the number of national character recommendations is apparent, reflecting an expansion in the focus of the parliamentary discourse on general economic, financial, and administrative reformative issues compared to the previous year. In contrast, the regional recommendations maintained their volume and impact, proving that service, developmental, infrastructure, health, and educational issues in the provinces remain a steadfast priority in the parliamentary discourse. This relative shift indicates an evolution in the approach of the deputies in discussing the budget, combining demands for comprehensive national reforms with the response to the daily needs of citizens in various regions, while the main challenge remains in converting these recommendations into tangible executive policies and real developmental impacts.
It is noted that 126 deputies spoke over four days of proceedings, including 5 deputies speaking on behalf of their parliamentary blocs, where 96% of the Union of Central and Islamic National Parties bloc, 95% of the Azm bloc members spoke during the discussions, followed by the Islamic Action Front bloc with 94% of its members speaking, then the Initiative bloc with 87% and the Charter with 86%.
