CAIRO: Shoura Council results will be announced Thursday amid court orders to call off the mid-term elections in a number of constituencies. The Administrative Court cancelled Tuesday the election in Helwan and Southern Giza constituencies due to violations committed during the electoral process. A day earlier, the Administrative Court ordered the cancellation of the election in eastern Alexandria because the name of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) candidate was dropped. “The court orders were not carried out as elections in Egypt are held outside the legal framework,” Ali Abdel-Fattah, an MB leader, told Daily News Egypt. According to the official spokesman of the Supreme Electoral Commission, the order was not enforceable since there was an objection on the commission's part. “When a court issues an order without the presence of the two opponents, the party against which the order is released can object to it,” counselor Ahmed Shawky explained. In the case of the Shoura elections, “the order has been suspended until the court looks into the issue again.” Shawky does not rule out the possibility of cancelling results and repeating the vote in any constituency. Though they had official procurements, MB candidates' representatives in southern Giza and Helwan constituencies were allegedly denied entry into polling stations. They were told they had to have permissions sealed by the police directorates. “We went to the Haram police station (in southern Giza) to seek authorization and to our surprise we found the police chief and his deputy off duty,” MB member and lawyer El-Husseini told Daily News Egypt on election day. Voters who had no voting cards were sent away as well. Shawky previously noted that legally speaking, a candidate's representative needed either an authenticated procurement or an authorization from the police station to do his job. Also voters can cast their votes using any official ID. Meanwhile, the NDP accused MB candidates of committing violations during the poll. “The party's operations room monitored several infringements committed by MB candidates and their supporters, which led to slowing down the voting process in some constituencies,” the NDP said in a statement released Tuesday evening. MB candidates frequently accused security authorities of hindering their electoral activities and being biased to the NDP candidates. A total of 15 MB members have run for the poll; three of them are sitting MPs. Some 446 candidates have vied for 74 seats in 55 constituencies across the country. Of these, 115 represented 13 parties and 331 ran as independents. The run-off is scheduled for Tuesday. The Shoura Council, the Upper House of Parliament, has 264 members; two thirds are elected by direct secret ballot, half of them at least, must be workers and farmers. The remaining third is appointed by the president. The term of membership is six years. A bi-election is held every three years. The Speaker of the Shoura Council is the Chairman of the Supreme Press Council. The council is consulted in several issues including, but not limited to, proposed constitutional amendments, draft laws, general plans for socio-economic development and all treaties affecting Egypt's territorial integrity or sovereignty.
