A new controversy emerged regarding Egypt’s parliamentary elections, as the Administrative Court ruled Monday that candidates need to again undergo medical check-ups, as the Supreme Electoral Commission (SEC) cannot proceed using the medical reports submitted for the earlier planned elections.
On the other hand, politicians allied in the electoral coalition, known as “Sahwet Misr”, threatened to withdraw from elections, stating their objections to the electoral process, in general, and protesting the delay caused by several constitutional flaws in parliamentary laws.
The SEC announced it would not begin the application process again, after elections were scheduled to resume by next October, but would allow formerly submitted applications to be validated and re-examined by the SEC committee.
In January, the SEC chose to include medical check-ups as a requirement for eligibility as a candidate, resulting in the objection of several political parties due to the costs of medical tests, which are estimated at 6,000 EGP per candidate.
Now that candidates have to submit another check-up, the SEC has extended the application deadline by three days, until 15 September. The Free Egyptians Party (FEP) and Reform and Development Party, among others, said they would not object to court decisions and would await the SEC’s rulings.
