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Egypt cabinet to review new draft of election law The electoral constituencies law is the final legislative step required before parliamentary elections can take place
In its weekly meeting scheduled for Wednesday, the Egyptian cabinet is expected to discuss a new draft of an electoral constituencieslaw, the last step required before long-awaited parliamentary polls. Sources close to a seven-member technical committee, formed by Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab to prepare the law, said it had introduced some significant changes, mainly related to constituencies designed for races among independent candidates. The new parliament – House of Representatives – will have 567 seats: 120 for party-based candidates, 420 for independents, and 27 for presidential appointees. Ali Abdel-Al, a member of the committee, said in a television interview on Monday night that the new draft scrapped a proposal that constituencies reserved for independents stand at 420, each of which would return a single MP. Abdel-Al said this proposal was rejected after political parties agreed that it would cause socio-political and logistical tensions. Bahaa Abu Shoka, a legal expert and member of the liberal Wafd party, told Ahram Online that "political parties saw that the proposal could cause discrimination among independent candidates in different constituencies. "We said it would be difficult for the committee to achieve equality among constituencies in accordance with this proposal," he added, noting that "you cannot have a constituency with 300,000 returning one independent MP, and another with 10,000 voters doing the same." Abdel-Al said the new draft opted to create a number ranging from 220 to 250 constituencies, some of which would be represented by a single MP while others would return two or three. The Minister of Transitional Justice and House of Representatives Affairs had earlier said that the proposal had the advantage that all necessary data – including population density and distribution of registered voters – were available. Abdel-Al said it was initially proposed that 82 constituencies would return one single independent MP each, 124 would return two, and 29 would return three. Abdel-Al said the committee took a long time to ensure that border governorates were also fairly represented. He also indicated that as for constituencies reserved for races among party-based candidates, these would remain as stipulated by the first draft of the law. Under the draft law, the 120 deputies drawn from party lists will stand in four constituencies. Two will return 45 deputies each, the other two 15 each. If finally approved by the cabinet on Wednesday, the final draft of the law could open the door for parliamentary elections. Prime Minister Mahlab said that the final draft would also have to be revised by the State Council's Legislative Department to ensure it was free from any constitutional or legislative defects. Parliamentary polls represent the third part of a political roadmap that was adopted after the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013. The first two parts were approving a new constitution in a public referendum, which took place in January 2014, and electing a new president, which took place in May 2014. http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/117014.aspx
