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Carnegie Endowment for International Peace 2015 CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL PEACE 2015 Postponed Parliamentary Elections * March 20, 2015 On March 1, 2015, the High Electoral Commission announced the the postponement of parliamentary elections after the Supreme Constitutional Court determined the Elections Constituency Division Law to be unconstitutional. On March 1, 2015, Egypt's High Electoral Commission announced the postponement of parliamentary elections after the Supreme Constitutional Court determined the Elections Constituency Division Law to be unconstitutional. The court rejected challenges filed against two other related laws, the Law of the Exercise of Political Rights and the Parliamentary Elections Law. Egypt was scheduled to hold parliamentary elections in March and April of 2015, over a year after the announcement of Egypt’s transitional roadmap in July 2013. The upcoming vote would have marked Egypt’s seventh election since the January 2011 revolution which unseated longtime former president Hosni Mubarak. Egypt has been without a parliament since the legislature was dissolved by the Supreme Constitutional Court in 2012. All legislative power continues to rest with the president until a parliament reconvenes. Voting was to be conducted in two stages, with fourteen governorates voting on March 22–23 (March 21–22 for expatriates) and the eleven remaining governorates, including Cairo, voting on April 26–27 (April 25–26 for expatriates). The new parliament was to have included 567 members, with 420 independents, 120 elected from party lists, and 27 presidential appointees. There were also 56 seats reserved for women, 24 for Coptic Christians, sixteen seats for youth, and eight for individuals with disabilities. An estimated 54 million Egyptians were registered and eligible to vote. If the elections had gone forward as scheduled, there would have been numerous differences between the 2015 vote and the 2012 parliamentary elections held following the January 2011 revolution. First, voters in 2015 would have been voting to elect just one legislative body, rather than an upper and lower house, as they did in 2012. Second, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi ratified a new voters constituency law in December 2014, which created new voting districts, as well as a new electoral law, which reserves 120 seats for party lists and 420 for independents. In the 2012 elections, 332 (two-thirds) of the seats in the lower house were reserved for party lists, while 166 (one-third) were designated for independent candidates. There was also a marked absence of Islamist parties due to the designation of the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization in December 2013 and the dissolution of its political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party, in August 2014. The Islamist Istiqlal Party was also disbanded in September 2014 and small, remaining Islamist parties such as the Strong Egypt Party (founded by former presidential candidate Aboul Moneim al-Fotouh) al-Wasat Party, al-Watan Party, and the Building and Development Party had decided to boycott the elections. The sole exception was the Salafi Nour Party, which was deemed eligible to run after courts cited a lack of jurisdiction in a case that accused Nour of violating the constitution’s ban on religiously based political parties. Many liberal and opposition parties, including al-Dostour Party, the Socialist Popular Alliance, the Egyptian Popular Current, the Free Egypt Party, the Justice Party, and the Bread and Freedom Party, had decided to boycott the elections following the killing of activist Shaimaa al-Sabbagh by Egyptian security forces on the fourth anniversary of the January 25, 2011 uprising. The Karama Party was not officially boycotting the election, but was only fielding candidates for independent seats. The Popular Long Live Egypt Coalition— originally headed by former foreign minister Mohamed el-Orabi—was also only fielding independent Page 1 of 2 candidates due to its inability to formulate a competitive list after Orabi’s last-minute decision to withdraw from the coalition and join the coalition For the Love of Egypt. Coalitions and Alliances By the February 19 registration deadline—which had been extended twice—approximately 7,000 candidates had registered to run for parliament, with at least different nine different electoral coalitions. The For the Love of Egypt alliance, headed by former intelligence officer Sameh Seif al-Yazal, emerged following the breakdown of Mubarak-era prime minister Kamal el-Ganzouri’s national list. Ganzouri reportedly stopped assembling his list following a January meeting between Sisi and political party leaders in which the president suggested that the parties create one national list, which he would then endorse, to contest the elections. For the Love of Egypt contained many of the same names as Ganzouri’s list, including numerous former National Democratic Party (NDP) members . The alliance had planned to coordinate with al-Wafd Party, which had first assembled its own coalition, the Wafd Alliance, and then unsuccessfully attempted to form a single national list following Sisi’s suggestion. Billionaire Naguib Sawiris's well- financed and well-connected Free Egyptians Party, which had previously remained unaligned, also announced that it would coordinate with For the Love of Egypt. The Egyptian Front Coalition, which had been coordinating with Ganzouri, included nationalist parties such as the Modern Egypt Party, the National Movement Party,the Egypt is My Country Party, and the Generation Party. The coalition, with strong ties to the former regime, was founded by the National Movement, the party of Mubarak-era aviation minister and former presidential candidate Ahmed Shafiq. The Egyptian Front also included prominent individuals such as former minister of the interior Ahmed Gamal El-Din and former member of parliament Mostafa Bakri. The coalition's inclusion of former regime members, as well as accusations that it represented a resurrected NDP, prevented it from successfully coordinating with other electoral alliances. But the Egyptian Front had announced that it would run a joint list, the Sons of al-Saeed, in conjunction with al-Wafd and former secretary-general of the Arab League Amr Moussa’s Congress Party to contest seats in Upper Egypt. The Egypt's Awakening Coalition assembled by Abdel Gelil Mostafa, a university professor and prominent member of the Kifaya movement, is a small coalition of leftist and revolutionary forces that explicitly rejects both the NDP and the Muslim Brotherhood. This coalition would likely have played a symbolic role at best. The Independence Current, formed in 2012 as an anti-Morsi opposition alliance, reassembled as a pro-Sisi electoral bloc. It had originally backed Ganzouri’s national list and then decided to run on its own. The Independence Current includes 36 parties and 42 coalitions. Just prior to the closure of the registration deadline, former Wafd coalition member Amr el-Shobaki launched a new electoral coalition called the Construction Alliance, though it was unlikely to win a significant number of votes. Other small coalitions included the Social Justice Coalition, Nidaa Masr, and the 25/30 Alliance. The Salafi Nour Party did not join a coalition. Read more at: http://carnegieendowment.org/2015/03/20/2015-postponed-parliamentary-elections/i7y0 Page 2 of 2.
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