Moves to draft a new electoral constituencies law began this week after the Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC) ruled the current draft unconstitutional. The court found the law violated Article 102 of the constitution, which stipulates that equal representation among voters in all constituencies must be guaranteed. President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi immediately ordered the government to amend the law within a month. Presidential spokesman Alaa Youssef said Al-Sisi asked the government to redraft the law as quickly as possible so that parliamentary polls can be held. Following the SCC ruling the Higher Electoral Committee (HEC), in charge of overseeing the polls, announced that parliamentary elections, set to begin on 21-22 March, have been put on hold. “A new timetable for the polls will be announced after an amended electoral constituencies law is issued,” said HEC spokesman Omar Marawan. Political analysts and officials both warn that the election could now be subject to a lengthy delay. Anwar Al-Sadat, chairman of the Reform and Development Party, told Al-Ahram Weekly the SCC ruling is unlikely to be the only obstacle in the way of the poll. “Other petitions contesting the constitutionality of the election laws are still being heard by the SCC and administrative courts. There is a strong possibility that other articles could also be ruled unconstitutional,” says Sadat. The SCC said on Tuesday it will deliver rulings on two petitions contesting the constitutionality of the House of Representatives Law on Saturday. The petitions, filed by lawyer Essam Al-Islambouli, argue that Articles 5 and 8 of the House of Representatives Law are unconstitutional because they discriminate against Egyptian expatriates and citizens who hold dual nationality. “Article 5 fails to allocate enough seats to representatives of Egyptian expats and Article 8 strips citizens holding dual nationality of standing for parliament,” says Al-Islambouli. “Both violate Articles 53 and 88 of the constitution, which stipulate that Egyptians are equal in rights and duties.” The SCC ruling has at least given a breathing space to administrative courts hearing the 300 appeals filed by candidates whose applications to stand were rejected by the HEC. “Following the SCC's ruling on Saturday we decided to postpone judgements on these appeals to 17 March,” said Yehia Al-Dakrouri, chairman of Cairo's Administrative Justice Court. While political parties blame the government for the latest delay to the parliamentary elections, they insist it is a cloud with a silver lining. “This is far better than electing a parliament which then has to be dissolved because the SCC rules the regulations governing the poll were unconstitutional,” argues Wafd Party Secretary-General Bahaa Abu Shoka. Abu Shoka said the delay has renewed hopes the election laws will be amended to allocate more seats to party-based candidates but warns, “The new delay will portray a negative image of the country at the moment it is hosting a major economic development conference, scheduled between 13 and 15 March.” “The SCC's rulings will guarantee that the next parliament stands on solid constitutional ground. At the same time they should sound an alarm bell in government circles over the importance of securing a national consensus over election laws,” says Sadat. “In the absence of consensus we could find ourselves in a vicious circle of election appeals and counter-appeals.” Sadat argues that the law regulating the SCC's own performance be amended to allow for prior scrutiny of election and political laws. Until recently government officials, including Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb, were confident Egypt's parliamentary polls would begin ahead of the March economic conference. The European Union and the United States have both said Egypt must move towards fully democratic rule before any additional economic and military assistance can be offered. US Secretary of State John Kerry told a Congress committee meeting on 25 February that setting a date for parliamentary elections in Egypt is a step in the right direction. But the US media has been full of reports that President Barrack Obama is unwilling to offer additional assistance to Egypt until it improves its human rights record and moves towards a more “inclusive democracy.” Kerry is expected to head the American delegation to Egypt's economic conference. “Article 3 of Law 202/2014 on electoral districts was drafted in a way that discriminates among constituencies reserved for independent candidates by ignoring the constitutional stipulation that a balance be struck among them in terms of population density and number of voters,” said the SCC in its Saturday statement. “A review of the number of voters in each constituency shows there is a stark discrimination, not to mention that some constituencies were drawn in a very arbitrary way and without achieving public interest,” the statement continued. “While we are aware that it is quite impossible to observe strict equality among constituencies in terms of number of voters, we also stress that differences in number of voters among constituencies should not be big. “In Cairo differences among constituencies in terms of the number of registered voters were wide. While Helwan district included 220,000 voters, the Gamaliyya district comprises 78,000.” The court recommended the government set an average of 168,000 voters per constituency, given “the population of Egypt stands at 86.8 million, the number of registered voters is 54.7 million and the number of seats allocated to independents is 420.” The electoral constituencies law, endorsed by Al-Sisi in December, establishes 237 constituencies for competition among independent candidates and four constituencies for party lists. The law, alongside laws on the exercise of political rights and the House of Representatives, took more than two months to be drafted by an 11-member government-affiliated committee. On Monday Mehleb asked the drafting committee to meet again to incorporate the SCC's recommendations. Rifaat Qomsan, a committee member and Mehleb's advisor on election affairs, said the “SCC's ruling will force a change in the total number of constituencies reserved for independents. “Some constituencies could also be designated to elect two independents rather than one, and others to elect three.”
