Top

Election 2011 Eg

December 5, 2011 by · Comments Off on Election 2011 Eg 

Election 2011 Eg, An early parliamentary election is currently being held in Egypt from November 2011 onwards, following the revolution which ousted President Hosni Mubarak, after which the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces dissolved the parliament of Egypt. Originally, the election was assumed to be held in September, but this was postponed following protests that the early elections would benefit established parties.

In late 2010, during the days of Husni Mubarak, a parliamentary election was held, though it was followed by controversy and repression as well as accusations of fraud.

Following similar events in Tunisia during the Arab Spring, Egyptian activists called for protesters to turn up in cities around Egypt on various specially-designated days of rages. Though violence was reported at some points, protests were largely peaceful with the army staying quiet until 10 February 2011, when calls for Mubarak to resign were at their peak. The following day, Vice President Omar Suleiman announced Mubarak’s resignation from the presidency while turning power over to the military. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, headed by Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi would lead the country for a transitional period until a civilian government takes over.

There were previously concerns that a change to the electoral system would be required, as the exsiting system mostly relyed on a district-based First-past-the-post voting system (designated for Indevidual candidates, as opposed to parties or coalition-lists) that was to favour the National Democratic Party, The party of Mubarak loyalists. The National Democratic Party was however dissolved in April.

The draft law for the electoral system to be used was revealed on 30 May 2011; controversially, it retained first-past-the-post voting for two thirds of the seats, with only one third of the seats elected by proportional representation.

On 7 July 2011, the caretaker government approved the new electoral law. It outlined a new 50–50 division between proportional seats and FPTP seats; the minimum age limit for candidates is also to be reduced from 30 to 25.

On 21 July 2011, the SCAF announced:

that the election (for both the People’s Assembly and the Shura Council) would be held in three rounds in October, with 15-day intervals in-between;
that half the seats would be reserved for workers and farmers;
that the women’s quota introduced under Mubarak would be abolished.
In late September 2011, again new division was announced, in which only one third of the seats would be elected by an FPTP vote. However, these directly elected MPs could only be independents and not members of political parties; this restriction led to threats of boycotting the election by a wide swath of the political parties which intended to contest the election. The parties stated that their demands for a change in the electoral law would have to be met by 2 October, else they would boycott the election. After a meeting with political party leaders on 1 October 2011, the SCAF agreed to allow party members to run for the directly elected seats, set a clearer timetable for the transition to civilian rule and possibly abolish military trials for civilians.

On 11 November 2011, an administrative court in Mansoura ruled that former NDP members were not allowed to stand in the election as independent candidates. It was not immediately known whether this ruling would eventually apply to the whole country. On 14 November 2011, the Higher Administrative Court in Cairo overruled the decision and allowed the former NDP members to stand.

Bottom