Egypt court rejects election law as unconstitutional

An Egyptian court has ruled that parts of the country’s election law run counter to the constitution.

On Sunday, Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court rejected as unconstitutional a clause in the country’s election law which divided electoral districts for the upcoming parliamentary elections.

The court decided that the electorate would fail to be fairly and adequately represented in Egypt’s next parliament as the present law’s mechanism for dividing constituencies is flawed.

The court has now to decide if the Egyptian parliamentary voting, due to be held on March 21, should be delayed or not.

“The election will be delayed and the process will have to start from the beginning,” said Mohamed Abdel Wahhab, one of the lawyers who appealed to the court against the law.

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi (seen below) ordered the law to be redrafted in less than a month, saying all “legal measures” should be taken to avoid the vote delay.

Back in 2012, the same court dissolved the Egyptian parliament, then dominated by Muslim Brotherhood members, ruling it was not constitutionally elected.

The country had no parliament after the court’s move in 2012 which granted sweeping powers to Sisi in the absence of a legislative agency.

Holding the election is of great importance to Sisi as he is trying to present a different image of himself to the public opinion other than the man behind the notorious coup that ousted Egypt’s first democratically elected president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013.

Sisi is under fire by rights groups for launching a heavy-handed crackdown on anti-government protesters and stifling freedom of speech in the Arab country.

Rights groups say the crackdown on the supporters of Morsi has left over 1,400 people dead and 22,000 arrested, while hundreds have been sentenced to death in mass trials.