Egypt announces parliamentary vote for October, November

Members of the High Elections Committee attend a news conference in Cairo.

Egypt on Sunday announced that long-awaited parliamentary elections will take place in October and November, a hoped-for step toward democracy amid a harsh crackdown on dissent.
Ayman Abbas, head of the Supreme Election Committee, said that half the country's 27 governorates will vote on October 18-19. The second stage will take place for the remaining governorates on November 22-23.
Voters outside Egypt for the first stage will cast ballots on October 17-18, and the rest on November 21-22. The period for candidates to register opens on September 1 and lasts 12 days.
Egypt has been without a legislature for three years. In its absence, President Abdel Fattah El Sisi holds legislative authority and has passed dozens of laws by decree in just over a year of his tenure. Parliamentary elections were supposed to be held in March, but a court suspended them over districting issues.
As army chief, El Sisi led the 2013 ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Mursi. Sisi was elected president last year.
Last July, he endorsed an amended law defining voting districts, which political groups and rights defenders said was steered by security concerns and ignored demands of Egypt's budding political groups seeking smaller districts to enable them to compete.
Speaking at a news conference in Cairo, Abbas said that the first stage of the vote would be for the governorates of Giza, Fayoum, Beni Suef, Minya, Assiut, El Wadi El Gadid, Sohag, Qena, Aswan, Red Sea, Luxor, Alexandria, Beheira and Marsa Matrouh.
The second stage would encompass Cairo, Qalioubiya, Dakahliya, Menoufiya, Gharbiya, Kafr El Shiekh, Sharqiya, Damietta, Port Said, Ismailia, Suez, North Sinai and South Sinai.
The previous parliament was dissolved via court order over electoral technicalities in June 2012, just days before Mursi was elected. The largest bloc in that parliament consisted of members of Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood, who frequently teamed with ultra-conservative Salafi Muslim MPs to effectively dominate the legislature.
Authorities banned the Brotherhood and declared it a terrorist organisation in the wake of Mursi's ouster. In its absence, and with some secularist opposition groups expected to boycott the vote, Egypt's next parliament will likely be stocked with supporters of El Sisi's military-backed government.