Egypt's ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces issued a constitutional declaration on Tuesday regarding the forthcoming parliamentary elections, according to the state-run Middle East News Agency (MENA). The agency quoted a military official source as saying that the council had decided to start accepting nominations for both the People's Assembly and the Shura Council elections as of 12 October. According to the agency, the declaration contains a decree amending the recent elections law to allot two thirds of parliamentary seats according to the list-based candidacy system, and one third according to the single-winner system. It also contains a decree determining the electoral constituencies of the People's Assembly, and another determining those of the Shura Council. The agency said that, according to the declaration, the president of the council invites voters to elect members of the People's Assembly over three phases, the first of which is to start on 28 November, with the run-off for the third phase slated to end on 10 January 2012, and the new assembly to convene on 17 March 2012. It added that the president of the council would also invite voters to elect members of the Shura Council over three stages, the first of which is to start on 29 January 2012, with the run-off for the third phase ending on 11 March 2012, and the new council to convene on 24 March 2012. According to the amendments, the People's Assembly is to consist of 498 members chosen by public balloting, at least half of whom will be classified as "workers" and "farmers." In case the "workers and farmers" quota is not filled after elections in any of the multiple-member constituencies (proportional lists), their quota will be filled by picking those candidates who received the least "remainder." The remainder is calculated by dividing the number of electoral votes obtained by each list in a constituency by the number of elected members of it. The amendments also stipulate that independent candidates should not be members of any political party, and should remain so throughout their term in parliament, or else their memberships in parliament could be invalidated. Translated from the Arabic Edition
