Several government officials made sure this week that Egypt's upcoming parliamentary polls will be held before the end of the year and that they will not be postponed to 2015. On 14 September, Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb said that the parliamentary elections will be held this year, as scheduled, and that the government will take all possible measures to ensure that the polls are marked by integrity and transparency. A day later, Minister of Transitional Justice and House of Representatives Affairs Ibrahim Al-Heneidi denied the rumour that parliamentary polls will be postponed to 2015. Al-Heneidy explained that the Higher Election Committee (HEC), a seven-member judicial body in charge of overseeing the polls, is expected to complete the procedures necessary for the elections to be held before the end of the year. Informed sources said they expect that the HEC will meet after the holiday of Eid Al-Adha, scheduled to begin on 4 October. According to the aforementioned sources, the HEC meetings will take place after the government has finalised the drafting of a new electoral districts law. Minister Al-Heneiday unveiled last week that the redrawing of electoral districts, the last obstacle before elections can be held, is almost complete. Al-Heneiday indicated that the law gained the initial approval of the cabinet in a meeting last month. It has been referred to a special technical committee that will put it into a final form. Sources said the committee has almost finalised drafting the law. It is expected to be passed by the government of Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb in a new cabinet meeting after the holiday. President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi and the Mehleb government have been under pressure in recent weeks to push procedures for the polls forward. While some political forces accused Al-Sisi and the Mehleb government of dragging their feet on the implementation of the parliamentary elections, others believe the government sought to delay the process for security reasons. Al-Sisi appears to be also facing growing international pressure, however. In a press conference on 13 September, US Secretary of State John Kerry cited Al-Sisi as assuring him that parliamentary polls and other democratic measures would be held before the end of this year. Egypt's upcoming parliamentary polls represent the third part of the political roadmap adopted after the ouster of former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi last year. The first two parts included passing a new constitution in a public referendum last January, and the election of a new president in May. Sources expect that the HEC will meet in the second week of October to announce the dates of registration and campaigning. It is anticipated that the elections will be held over three stages, with each stage including nine governorates. If everything goes to plan, next January or February Egypt will see a new parliament meeting for the first time in two years. The previous parliament, dominated by Islamists and held for just five months, was dissolved on a final verdict from the High Constitutional Court in June, 2012 on the grounds that the election law was discriminatory and especially biased against independent candidates. Sources said the first stage will include the governorates of Cairo, Alexandria, and the Nile Delta governorates of Qalyoubiya, Gharbiya, Menoufiya, Daqahliyya, Kafr Al-Sheikh and Beheira, as well as Marsa Matruh. The second stage includes Giza, Fayoum, Beni Suef, Al-Minya, Assuit, Sohag, Qena, Luxor and Aswan. The third stage includes the governorates of Suez, Ismailia, Port Said, Sharqiya, Damietta, North and South Sinai, the Red Sea, and the New Valley. On the invitation of President Al-Sisi, the HEC met for the first time on 15 July, as per the constitution, which stipulates that preparations for parliamentary polls must begin within six months from the passing of the national charter. The 15 July's HEC meeting, however, only accomplished the formation of a secretariat-general and the selection of a spokesperson. HEC spokesperson Medhat Idris told Al-Ahram newspaper last week that preparations for the polls have included updating national voter lists and other logistical procedures. “Right now we're waiting for an electoral districts law to be finalised by the government and for the selection of judges entrusted with supervising the polling stations to set a date for registration, campaigning and voting,” said Idris, adding that as many as 16,000 judges will take part in supervising the polls. Other sources also cited the necessity that the Interior Ministry should give the HEC the green light to go ahead, having ensured that conditions in governorates prone to terrorism like North Sinai are secure enough for the polls to be held. Meanwhile, a number of legal experts and political factions have decided to team up to exert greater pressure on President Al-Sisi, urging him to amend two recent electoral laws. In a statement on Sunday, a number of legislative experts argued that the new House of Representatives law violates the principle of equality. Ahmed Ashour Ramadan, a member of the State Cases Authority, and Ahmed Medhat Al-Maraghy, former chairman of the Court of Cassation, said the law violates Article 146 of the constitution which stipulates that the political party that gains the majority of seats in the polls must be entrusted with forming the government. “The current draft of the House of Representatives law does not allow this to be achieved as it reserves 75 per cent of seats to independents and stipulates that for a political party to win the seats of a certain district it must gain more than 50 per cent of the votes of citizens in this district,” said Ashour. Al-Maraghy explains that these two stipulations open the door for contesting the legality of the law. “I think it will be so easy for anyone to go to the Supreme Constitutional Court and ask its judges to revoke this law just like it did in 2012 when it ordered that the Islamist-dominated parliament should be dissolved the on grounds that its election law had not observed the principle of equality,” argued Al-Maraghy. Ashour, Al-Maraghy and other legal experts and political figures have asked Al-Sisi to amend the law, in the hope of helping political parties to secure greater leverage in parliamentary life. Abdel-Ghaffar Shukr, the chairman of the Socialist Popular Alliance Party, told Al-Ahram Weekly that “a mix of leftist and liberal revolutionary forces under the banner of the so-called the Civilian Democratic Current have asked Al-Sisi twice to amend the law. We have not yet received an official response but unconfirmed sources claim that Al-Sisi formed a legal committee to review the law and to see whether its articles are in line with the constitution,” said Shukr. He also indicated, however, that in spite of the negative aspects of the electoral laws, the Democratic Current is not in favor of postponing the parliamentary elections to 2014. “It is not good for Egypt to stay without a parliament or with a president holding both executive and legislative powers for too long,” said Shukr.
