The nation, battered by political turmoil and an economic crisis that has sent the local currency tumbling, will hold House of Deputies elections in April, officials said Wednesday. Under the nation's new constitution approved by a referendum last month, President Mohamed Morsi must set an election date within 60 days of when he signed the document into law on December 26. "The vote for parliament will take place in April," said an official at the presidency, who asked not to be named. "The exact date for the vote has not been fixed yet and the president will announce it no later than February 25." The Islamist-led government is trying to clinch a $4.8 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to ease economic strains worsened by a turbulent political transition since a popular uprising toppled President Hosni Mubarak in Feb. 2011. Unrest over the constitution rammed through by Morsi late last year prompted the Islamist president to withdraw tax rises seen as part of a programme provisionally agreed with the IMF, according to Reuters. The IMF is expected to send a technical team back to Cairo within two to three weeks to discuss the loan, which is vital to restoring a measure of confidence in the economy and in the Egyptian pound, which fell to a new low at a Central Bank auction of US dollars yesterday. Qatar threw Egypt a financial lifeline on Tuesday, saying it had lent the country another $2 billion and given it an extra $500 million outright to help control the currency crisis, which has drained foreign reserves to a critical level. Egypt has not had a lower house of parliament since the constitutional court dissolved the Islamist-dominated body in June. Legislative power now rests with the upper house. "With a new House of Deputies, Egypt would have completed its transition with an elected president, a constitution and a parliament," said another official at the presidency. The Freedom and Justice Party, the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, which propelled Morsi to power in a June election, was the biggest bloc in the previous parliament.
