nature since the first modern constitution was founded in 1923. However, an amendment that differs from this tradition was passed in 1980. According to the 1980 amendment of the Constitution, Islamic law (Sharia) became the principal source of legislative rules. Such wording simply implies that any new law that is being enacted or considered for enactment should not be in contravention of any prevailing principles of Islamic law (Sharia). It is worth noting that laws regulating personal status issues (marriage, divorce, inheritance, etc.) are derived from Islamic norms, but penal law rules as codified in the Penal Code are entirely non-religious rules, whether they were ratified before or after the 1980 amendment. Egypt has also enacted a number of new laws to respond to contemporary standards of global economic and business reform including laws on investment, anti-money laundering, intellectual property rights, competition, consumer protection, electronic signatures, banking, and taxation law. With the apparent growing popularity of the Muslim Brotherhood after the 2005 parliamentary elections, the debate arose again discussing whether the state is secular or religious. The legitimacy of a religious political party is also in debate among intellectuals and politicians. Integrity of the democratic process One of the Egyptian long-standing traditions is the judicial monitoring of the elections. The amendments passed in 2007 would allow non-judiciary body members to perform the official monitoring and counting of the elections. This has sparked fears that the reason behind these amendments is the rigging of the elections which is something that had become popular in the last years. Presidential elections After the amendment of Article 76 in 2005 and its perceived draconian restrictions imposed on both partisan and independent presidential candidates, it was announced for reconsideration by the People's Assembly's chairman in November 2006 and was once again amended in 2007 to remove many of the restrictions. In addition, the amendments did not include a ceiling for the number of terms a president is to serve in office. Timeline The current constitution has had a number of amendments and phases. 1971 – President Sadat passed a new constitution named “The Permanent Constitution of Egypt.” The country still preserved its socialist tendency in Politics and economic system. 1980 – President Sadat passed a few amendments; most notably passing the Islamic Law (Sharia) became the principal source of legislative rules. 2005 – President Mubarak asked the parliament to amend Article 76 to allow multi-candidate