Egypt court rejects election law; polls likely to be delayed

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 ruling that may delay a parliamentary poll due in April.

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.