CAIRO: Candidate registration for Egyptian parliamentary hopefuls began on Wednesday for Egypt's upcoming People's Assembly and Shura Council elections. Registration will last for one week, and will close on October 18 at 5 pm. Candidates register through an Egyptian appeals court, according to registration procedures set by Egypt's High Electoral Committee (HEC). The long-anticipated parliamentary elections will be the first elections held in Egypt since the fall of the former President Hosni Mubarak. They come at a critical time for Egypt's security, economy and stability as a nation. Many are concerned that boiling tensions in the country, in the wake of a military siege on protesters in Cairo last Sunday, could delay the long-awaited election process. However, the process has moved forward as scheduled, as candidates register and finalize their party lists. Egypt's largest political coalition, the Democratic Alliance, is still finalizing their party list. The coalition, consisting of 40 Egyptian political parties including the liberal al-Wafd Party and the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) are expected to take a significant portion of the vote. Egypt's state-run English language news service, Ahram Online, opened their reporting on the registration process by ominously foreshadowing an expected “series of electoral controversies and broken alliances.” Many activists in Egypt are angry over the SCAF decision to drop a proposed “Treason Law,” that would prevent members of the National Democratic Party (NDP), Mubarak's formerly ruling party, from running in upcoming elections. Former NDP members met in a conference last week, calling the proposed Treason Law a human rights violation. They claimed that NDP members “should not be stripped of their rights,” to run in elections. Yesterday, 60 former NDP members registered as candidates. Many fear that they will capitalize on their family, business and tribal ties, and rely on practices of corruption and vote buying in order to monopolize the vote as they have for decades past. Originally, the parliamentary vote was based on a two-thirds party list, with one-third of seats reserved for individual candidates. Activists demanded that the entire race work under a system of party lists, citing this system as less culpable to corruption or bribery. The SCAF responded to activist demands by allowing parties to vie for individual votes as well. Voters will fill out two ballots on election days, voting for a party ballot and an individual candidate ballot. Parliamentary elections are scheduled to begin on November 28, and will take place in several phases, with upper house elections ending on March 24, 2012. The new Parliament will adjourn on March 17, 2012. A parliamentary committee of 100 members will be organized to draft the nation's next constitution. Presidential elections are expected to take place once a constitution is established. There is still no established timeline for presidential elections. BM
