Egypt Court Orders Suspension of Presidential Elections

Egyptian Administrative Court issued an order to suspend the country’s upcoming presidential elections, scheduled to start on May 23, over a lawsuit.

The ruling came on Wednesday after a lawyer filed a complaint, challenging the legality of an article of the presidential elections law. 

The court in Cairo ruled that the country’s election commission exceeded its powers by calling on voters to head to the polls on May 23 to cast their ballots. 

It claimed that the date had wrongly been set by an independent electoral commission instead of by the ruling military council. 

However, legal experts said that they expected the election to proceed as scheduled since the military council reiterated as recently as Wednesday that the presidential election will be held on time and it will transfer power to an elected president by the end of the transitional period. 

Egyptians are to vote in the presidential polls on May 23 and 24 while a run-off has been planned for June 16 and 17, if necessary. It will be the country’s first presidential race since the toppling of long-term US-backed Hosni Mubarak in a popular 2011 revolution, according to Press TV.