CAIRO: President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi has approved Saturday two electoral laws regulating Egypt’s long-awaited parliament election, Transitional Justice Minister Ibrahim el-Heneidy was quoted by Tahrir news Friday.
The two laws, which were amended after they were ruled unconstitutional in March, are related to the exercise of political rights and the affairs of the House of Representatives, said Heneidy.
According to the new amendments, the maximum campaign spending allowed for a 10-member party list will be 2.5 million EGP ($319,293) in the first round and one million EGP in the runoff, said Heneidy.
“The High Election Committee (HEC) is to announce the parliament elections’ schedule next week after the inauguration of the New Suez Canal,” Heneidy said.
In July 9, President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi has ratified the amendments of the electoral constituencies’ law, necessary to hold Egypt’s long-awaited parliamentary elections, Youm7 reported.
According to the amendments made in April by a committee tasked with amending the two laws, Egypt will be divided into 205 electoral constituencies for individual candidates and four for the party lists.
According to the new drafts submitted in April, the number of individuals’ seats within parliament has increased to 444 up from 420 in the old version of the law while the number of seats for members elected through electoral lists remains 120 seats, whereas 28-29 members, representing 5 percent of the total number of members, will be appointed by the president.
The former parliamentary electoral laws were ruled unconstitutional in March by the Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC), on the grounds of disproportionate districting.
In April, the Cabinet announced that three new drafts were sent to the state council court to be approved.