Individual seats might increase for Egypt’s next parliament

The committee responsible for amending the Election Constituency Division Law seeks to increase the number of seats elected as individuals from 420 to 440, a member of the committee told Al-Ahram Arabic news website on Sunday.

The Parliamentary Elections law as it is now allocates 420 seats to be elected as individuals and 120 for party lists, in addition to 27 to be appointed by the president upon recommendations from respective state councils and professional syndicates.

Earlier in the drafting process, many parties had opposed the fact that the parliament would be comprised of 70 percent of seats elected as individuals, saying it would allow wealthy businessmen or powerful local figures to use their influence in order to get votes.

The member of the committee, Professor of constitutional law at Ain Shams University Aly Abdel-Aal also said that the committee received around 40 suggestions from political forces and citizens to keep the constituencies as they are.

Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court had ruled on 1 March that the Election Constituency Division Law was unconstitutional, delaying the parliamentary elections that were due on 21 March.

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi urged the cabinet to amend the law within a month.

Abdel-Aal said the committee responsible for amending the law is constantly holding meetings to study the division of constituencies.

He also said the committee seeks to update information by consulting the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics as well as the ministry of local development and the information centre at the cabinet.

The parliamentary elections are the third and last step in a political roadmap set forth after the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

Source : Ahram online