(AFP File Photo)
Al-Dostour Party spokesman Khaled Dawoud said Wednesday that his party has not made any requests to join any of the coalitions currently being formed ahead of the parliamentary elections.
His statements came in response to a news report by private newspaper Youm7 citing a top Al-Wafd Party member as saying that Al-Dostour “officially requested” to join the EgyptianWafd coalition. After denying this, Dawoud added in a statement released by Al-Dostour Party that “any decision on this matter will first be presented to the party’s different committees and will be made after exploring the views of party members”.
Dawoud said Al-Dostour is coordinating with parties in the Democratic Current to push for amending the Parliamentary Elections Law. Al-Dostour and other parties in the current, such as Al-Karama and the Socialist Popular Alliance Party, regularly meet to discuss their desire to change the law to increase the percentage of seats in parliament allotted for party lists.
In his last days in office, former interim president Adly Mansour issued the Parliamentary Elections Law, which will be used to govern the upcoming House of Representative Elections. The law stipulates the legislature will be made up of 540 seats and an additional 5 percent or up to 27 seats which will be filled by appointment by the president, totaling to 567.
Article 3 of the law states that 420 seats will be elected on an individual basis, while the remaining 120 will follow the party lists system.
Dawoud said Al-Dostour is also coordinating with parties outside the Democratic Current that have rejected the law in its current form, including Al-Wafd. He added that Al-Dostour and several parties have handed President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi a proposal to amend the law on Sunday.
Al-Sisi had announced on 22 June that the parliamentary elections process would begin before 18 July and talk of coalitions has surfaced over the past few weeks, as coalitions formed for the presidential elections began to regroup ahead of the parliamentary elections.
The Salafi Al-Nour Party said on 22 June that it may form a coalition with civil parties for parliamentary elections, with a final decision on partners yet to be made.
Other parties are considering running alone, including the Free Egyptians Party, which announced on 16 June that it is studying running independently without taking part in any political coalitions.
On 15 June, Tayar Al-Estiqlal (Independent Current) was formed to support Al-Sisi in parliament and plans to compete for 420 seats of parliament.
