Speaker of Egypt's lower house Saad al-Katatni was elected chairman of the Constituent Assembly during its first session on Wednesday, when a quarter of its members were absent.

The session, chaired by the eldest member in the assembly Mohamed Emmara, began at 11:30 a.m. local time (0930 GMT). Only 75 people of the 100-member assembly attended, among whom 71 voted for Katatni, also a former member of the Muslim Brotherhood.

During his speech, Katatni said he will form a committee to hear suggestions from all parties and the Egyptian people.

"It's an honor for me to be the head of the assembly, and this is another responsibility towards the revolution goals," said Katatni, adding that the drafting of the constitution should be taken seriously detached from any narrow party considerations.

"We will allocate a website and email to receive all suggestions related to the constitution," said Katatni.

Concerning the members who had withdrawn, he said that they were not pulling out formally. "They shouldn't just tell the media and walk away, they should quit in formal and legal ways," said Katatni.

Some members had asked Emmara to postpone the elections due to the absence of 25 members.

"We shouldn't elect the head of the assembly until all members are here, and their rights will be neglected if we do so," assembly member Yahia al-Dakrouri said. Others, like the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) parliament member Essam al-Erian, refuted the demand.

"If we wait for all members to attend, we will never hold any session and we will never take any decision, as in the coming sessions, others may be absent for other conditions," Erian said.

The People's Assembly (the lower house) and the Shura Council ( the upper house) held on Saturday a joint meeting to choose the 100-member assembly. The FJP and the Nour Party jointly contributed 58 members to the assembly, according to the Daily News Egypt.

The liberal and leftist parties slammed the Islamists who dominate the parliament, accusing the Islamists of neglecting the proposals on Constituent Assembly submitted by the minority in the parliament. The parties called for public actions to cancel the decision of forming the Constituent Assembly until fair standards are established to select the its members.