Egypt court rejects election law
2013-02-18 14:53
Cairo - Egypt's constitutional court rejected five articles
of a draft election law on Monday and sent the text back to the country's
temporary legislature for redrafting in a move that may delay a parliamentary
poll due in April.
"The court has returned the draft parliamentary
electoral law to the Shura Council after making five observations on five
articles which it found unconstitutional," a court statement said.
It did not immediately disclose which parts of the law had
been censured, but the court said it would issue a fuller statement later in
the day.
A source in President Mohammed Morsi's office said before
the decision that if the court found fault with the law, it could delay passage
of the law, and hence the election, by a couple of weeks, but probably not
months.
Morsi had been expected to promulgate the electoral law by
February 25 and set a date two months later for voting, probably in more than
one stage for different regions because of a shortage of judicial poll
supervisors.
The constitutional court, made up partly of judges from
ousted former President Hosni Mubarak's era, has intervened repeatedly in the
transition, dissolving the Islamist-dominated parliament elected after the 2011
pro-democracy uprising.
Its composition was changed by the new constitution passed
by a referendum in December.
Morsi was criticised in October for issuing a decree giving
himself powers to override the judiciary. He backed down and dropped the decree
weeks later following widespread protests.
