(Photo by Mohamed Omar/ DNE File)
Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb will continue meetings with political parties Tuesday to discuss amendments to the electoral districts law.
Mehleb met Thursday with a group of representatives from 11 political parties to discuss amending the law. Representatives at the meeting included the Al-Wafd Party, the Free Egyptians, the Conference and the Egypt Social Democratic Parties, as well as the Egypt National Movement, amongst others.
The series of meetings with over than 70 parties will resume with another set of parties on Tuesday, Refaat Abul Qomsan, a member of the committee entitled to amend the law, told Daily News Egypt.
In March, the Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC) ruled the Electoral Districts Law unconstitutional, resulting in the postponement of parliamentary elections until the questioned law is amended.
While the court announced that Article 3 of the law as unconstitutional, it refused other appeals on the law defining political rights issued ahead of the presidential elections last May. It also refused appeals on the law organising the establishment of the parliament. Both laws were passed by former interim president Adly Mansour.
The Popular Current, the Al-Dostour Party as well as the Al-Karama party are among those not included in the first meeting. Head of Al-Karama party Mohamed Sami told Daily News Egypt that the party did not receive an invitation for Tuesday’s meeting, while the Popular Current’s spokesman said his party received an invitation for the upcoming meeting.
The aforementioned parties have decided, prior to the elections postponement, not to take part in the elections in protest to the elections law and security crackdown, among other reasons.
Representatives of the parties that attended the first meeting issued a memo to Mehleb and the committee during the meeting, with a list of recommendations for amendments to be compatible with the constitution.
“The recommendations included mainly distributing the candidates on eight lists instead of four, containing 15 seats for each list, in addition to increasing the number of seats for youth,” spokesperson for the Free Egyptians Party Shehab Abdel-Maguid said.
