Egyptian parliament speaker Ali Abdel-Al announced in a plenary session Sunday that 14 government-drafted laws dealing with political, judicial and economic issues – most notably laws regulating elections – have been referred to parliament for approval.
“The most important are two draft laws that aim to regulate the upcoming election of city councils and the National Election Commission,” said Abdel-Al.
Abdel-Al said the law on the National Election Commission (NEC) will be discussed by three committees; the Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee, the Labour Force Committee and the Budget Committee.
According to Egypt's 2014 constitution, an independent National Election Commission should be created to take charge of all public elections –presidential, parliamentary and local – and public referendums.
Articles 208 and 209 state that the NEC is to be in charge of all aspect of supervising elections, beginning with preparing voter lists, drawing districts, setting campaign rules, monitoring the polls and announcing the results.
“The NEC will comprise 10 judges to be selected by the Higher Judicial Council from the courts of cassation and appeal, the state council and the administrative prosecution authority,” states Article 209.
In his policy statement before parliament last March, Prime Minister Sherif Ismail vowed that municipal elections will be held by the end of this year.
Egypt's local city councils were dissolved after the 2011 uprising.
The new draft law regulates the selection of provincial governors and the election of city council members in a secret ballot every four years.
According to the constitution, “one quarter of [local city council] seats shall be allocated to youth under 35 years of age and one quarter shall be allocated for women, and that workers and farmers shall be represented by no less than 50 percent of the total number of seats, and these percentages shall include an appropriate representation of Christians and people with disability.”
