Yehia el-Gamal, a legal expert, and Mahmoud el-Khodeiry, the former vice president of the Court of Cassation, will file today a lawsuit before the State Council against the Egyptian government to allow expatriate Egyptians to vote in the upcoming elections. A number of expatriate Egyptians have signed proxies permitting el-Gamal to file the lawsuit. The Alliance of Egyptian-Americans sent two letters two months ago to the ministers of interior and foreign affairs urging them to enable Egyptians living abroad to vote. The alliance announced it is escalating action by taking the matter to court after the 60-day grace period stipulated by the law expired without a reply from either minister. Meanwhile, Osama el-Ghazali Harb, the leader of the Democratic Front Party, called for representing emigrants in parliament, in order to allow them to express their problems. In a related development, the US branch of the pro-reform National Association for Change (NAC) in Washington announced that its members and branches have increased. Dina Darwish, head of the NAC's branch in Washington, said greater efforts will be exerted over the coming period to increase the membership of the NAC and push for the right of expatriate Egyptians to vote in Egyptian elections. Translated from the Arabic Edition.
