The cabinet had been expected to endorse the draft electoral district law at a plenary meeting on 19 November. Instead it referred the draft back to the technical committee for further revision. Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb told a press conference last Thursday that the final draft of the law, prepared by a seven-member technical committee formed one month ago, requires further study. “The cabinet thoroughly discussed the draft law and decided to refer it back to the technical committee for further study,” said Mehleb. Minister of Transitional Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Ibrahim Al-Heneidi, and Minister of State for Local Development Adel Labib, said the law cannot be passed before new boundaries for Egypt's governorates are drawn. In an interview with Al-Ahram on 16 November Al-Heneidi had said the cabinet would endorse a final draft on 19 November. Two days later Al-Heneidi backtracked, announcing on 18 November that the endorsement would be postponed for “a week or two”. “The cabinet has changed its agenda. The weekly cabinet meeting of 19 November will now be devoted to discussion of the creation of new governorates. This means the electoral district law, which must take into account the boundaries of newly created governorates, will be delayed for one or two weeks,” Al-Heneidi, who is also chairman of the technical committee, told parliamentary reporters on 18 November. “Four or five new governorates are to be created. The electoral constituencies law will have to be adjusted to accommodate this,” he added. Al-Heneidi said he would be cooperating closely with Labib on the re-designation of governorate boundaries. Anwar Al-Sadat, chairman of the liberal Reform and Development Party, told Al-Ahram Weekly that political parties suspect the government is deliberately seeking to delay the poll. “We do not know the reason for this. In recent meetings with political forces, Mehleb stressed that the government wants parliamentary polls as soon as possible,” said Al-Sadat. Now, he warned, it seems what the government really wants is a toothless parliament that will not offer any real opposition and it does not mind if this is in place later rather than sooner. Other political forces say that in meetings with Mehleb, they expressed their reservations over the three laws which will regulate the polls: the electoral districts law, the House of Representatives law and the political rights law. “By reserving two-thirds of seats for independents, which is what the House of Representatives law does, you not only undermine political parties but help remnants of the Mubarak regime, especially wealthy businessmen, to dominate parliament,” says Abdel-Ghaffar Shukr, chairman of the leftist Socialist Popular Alliance. Political parties with members linked to the Mubarak regime, allied under the title ‘The Egyptian Front', take a different position. Front spokesman Mustafa Bakri says in its meeting with Mehleb, the Front insisted the electoral districts law ensure a balance among constituencies, as required by the new constitution. “When you say that each constituency will be represented by one independent you have to make sure constituencies are equal in terms of the number of registered voters and geographical size,” says Bakri. Ahmed Al-Fadali, chairman of the Independence Current Coalition, a loose mix of low-profile political parties dating from the Mubarak-era, told Al-Ahram Weekly the coalition has no objections to the law. “We insisted from the beginning that at least two-thirds of seats be allocated to independents,” said Al-Fadali. Bahaaeddin Abu Shoka, secretary-general of the Wafd Party, said that he agrees with Mehleb that it is necessary to delay the electoral districts law so it takes into account the boundaries of new governorates. He, too, insists that constituency boundaries must be drawn up so as to guarantee balance between constituencies in terms of population and area.” “You cannot have a constituency with 300,000 returning one independent MP, and another with 10,000 voters doing the same.” “I hope that the government has decided to delay the law to ensure that there is equality among constituencies and that nobody will accuse the law of discriminating among constituencies,” said Abu Shoka. The House of Representatives law stipulates the new parliament will comprise of 567 seats, 120 for party-based candidates, 420 for independents and 27 for presidential appointees. “To achieve this objective,” says Al-Heneidi, “the committee created four party-list constituencies which will return a total of 120 deputies, two constituencies returning 45 each, the other two 15 each.” Al-Heneidi earlier announced that the committee was split over how to draw the boundaries of constituencies reserved for independents. “A minority retaining 246 constituencies, some of which would return a single MP and others two or three depending on the number of registered voters.” The majority, said Al-Heneidi, favoured creating 420 constituencies, each of which would return a single MP. Al-Heneidi said he presented the cabinet meeting on 19 November with both options. President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi made a final review of new governorate boundaries in a meeting with Mehleb and Labib on 16 November. Presidential spokesman Alaa Youssef said Al-Sisi discussed the creation of new governorates along the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Coast.
