  In this work we study the structure of the electromagnetic interactions and
the electric charge quantization in gauge theories of electroweak interactions
based on semi-simple groups. We show that in the standard model of the
electroweak interactions the structure of the electromagnetic interactions is
strongly correlated to the quantization pattern of the electric charges. We
examine these two questions also in all possible chiral bilepton gauge models
of the electroweak interactions. In all they we can explain the vectorlike
nature of the electromagnetic interactions and the electric charge quantization
together demanding nonvanishing fermion masses and the anomaly cancellations.
