In its evening session on Wednesday, the Shura Council passed the two laws on the House of Representatives and the exercise of political rights, but the assembly’s speaker, Ahmed Fahmy, postponed their final approval until Thursday’s session.
The council redistricted electoral constituencies, making 91 constituencies for individual candidates and 48 for list candidates, for a total of 546 seats in the House of Representatives.
It rejected all proposals for redistricting the constituencies, saying this format ensures a fair representation in Parliament.
It has also rejected a special constituency for Egyptians living abroad.
Mohamed Mohieddin, a representative of the Ghad Party, suggested to consider each governorate a whole constituency. “This would give more opportunities for women and Copts,” he said.
MP Nagi al-Shihaby suggested to divide the country into a total of 91 constituencies, and that for each four individual constituencies there should be two for list-based candidates.
MP Essam al-Erian of the Freedom and Justice Party said the previous list system led to the dissolution of Parliament on the grounds that the system of unconstitutional.
“We suggested the combined list and individual system to the military council at the time to give a chance to smaller parties,” he said. “This is the ideal system, and Parliament can change it later if it deems it necessary.”
Abu Bakr al-Guindy, head of the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics, explained to the council how a census is counted, the population is distributed among governorates, the population growth is monitored and who has the right to vote.
MP Sobhi Saleh said the distribution of the constituencies was not affected by any political consideration.
