Election Committee prepares to receive nominations for elections

Wednesday 22-10-2014 03:09 PM
Election Committee prepares to receive nominations for elections

A polling station in Shobra, Qaliubiya - Mohamed Abdel Ghani/REUTERS

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CAIRO, Oct 22 (Aswat Masriya) – Egypt's Supreme Election Committee (SEC) announced on Wednesday establishing electoral sub-committees in all governorates nationwide to receive nomination requests for the coming parliamentary elections.

The parliamentary elections are due to be held at the end of the year, Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb had said in September.

Each committee will be presided over by the head of the said governorate's primary court, said SEC spokesman Medhat Idris in a statement. The sub-committees are scheduled to start working as soon as the SEC formally opens the floor for the parliamentary elections.

The time-frame for the elections will be announced as soon as the law governing the electoral districts is finalised. Ibrahim al-Heneidi, minister of transitional justice and head of the committee drafting the law, said on Tuesday that the law will be issued "soon". 

He added that the law governing electoral districts will be submitted to the cabinet before the new border demarcation plan for Egypt's governorates is finalised.

A source at the SEC, who preferred to remain anonymous, nevertheless told Aswat Masriya on Wednesday that the electoral districts will not include three new governorates introduced to Egypt's map through the border demarcation plan.

The new governorates introduced in the plan will include one in central Sinai, one in the North Coast region of al-Alameen and a third combining the Western Sahara oases of Farafra and Bahariya.

"The suggested governorates are yet to be legalised," the SEC source said. He added that the new governorates do not have primary courts and therefore were not included in the decision to establish sub-committees in Egypt's governorates.

Former Interim President Adli Mansour issued on June 6 a law governing the coming parliamentary elections, shortly before ceding power. The law has been met with criticism by several political parties that have been calling for its amendment before the elections are held.

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