Egypt to set rules next month for parliamentary vote

Cairo -ArabTelegraph- Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi announced on Sunday that procedures that would pave the way for a parliamentary election would start before July 18, state television reported.

It gave no immediate details or dates for the vote itself. The procedures are expected to include the regulations and set the time frame and eligible candidates for the vote.

The state this month passed a law to allow individual candidates to take the majority of seats in parliament, rather than party lists, and which drew criticism from many political parties who said it would weaken them.

Most political parties are weak or new, with many created only after a 2011 uprising ousted autocratic president Hosni Mubarak who ruled for 30 years.

Of the 540 parliament members to be elected, 420 will be drawn from individual candidate lists while 120 will be from closed lists.