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Parliamentary Elections Delayed: Co

Parliamentary Elections Delayed: Court Finds Laws Unconstitutional
The beginning of March saw a highly interesting judicial development coming out of Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court. On the 1st of March, the Court held that Article 3 of the Electoral Districts Law was unconstitutional.[1] Less than a week later, another law organizing the parliamentary elections was deemed unconstitutional for failing to allow dual citizens to run for parliament.[2] This meant that Egypt’s long-awaited parliamentary elections will have to be yet again postponed. Until the parliament convenes, legislative powers remain with the president, in accordance with the 2014 Constitution.
Background
The date of the parliamentary elections has been the subject of much debate for over a year. The Constitutional Declaration of the 8th of July 2013 originally stated that the president, within 15 days after the new constitution is approved ("the 2014 Constitution"), must call for parliamentary elections to be held within a period of one to two months. According to that timeline, presidential elections were supposed to be called for within a week after parliament had held its first session.[3] After much debate and speculation, the Supreme Council on Elections ("SCE"), a seven-member judicial body created mid-July 2014 and tasked with overseeing this election, announced in early January 2015 that parliamentary elections will be conducted in two phases, starting on March 21 and 22, and ending on April 26 and 27, with possible run-offs on May 6 and 7.
The Constitutional Court’s Decision
On the 1st of March, the Supreme Constitutional Court held that Article 3, the main provision governing the division of electoral districts for individual seats (as opposed to party lists), was unconstitutional. This Article assigned a specific number of seats for each electoral district and stipulated that such allocation will respect fair representation of residents and governorates and equitable representation of voters. This meant that, for example, more densely populated districts would be represented by more seats than their less densely populated counterparts. The Court, however, decided that the allotment of seats to electoral districts was not done in accordance with the constitutional requirement set out in Article 102 of the 2014 Constitution. In its decision, the Court stated that Article 102 requires fair and equitable representation of residents and voters, and that the current division gives voters of some districts more weight than others. The Court arrived at this conclusion, in part, through calculating how many citizens a representative from one district would be representing, and comparing it to the number of another district. The Court found that this exercise revealed that there is a significant disparity between the districts. In applying the ruling, the Administrative Court decided on the 3rd of March to stay the execution of the SCE’s call for the elections. The SCE later announced that it will comply with both rulings and issued a decision to stay its own prior call for elections. Less than a week later, the Court held another elections related law unconstitutional.[4] In deciding on the constitutionality of Article 8 of the Law for the Council of Representatives (commonly referred to as Parliament’s Law), the Court held that it was unconstitutional insofar as it forbade dual citizens from running as candidates. The Court opined that while the Constitution made it clear that the country’s president and prime minister must be of sole Egyptian citizenship, it did not mention this as a condition for parliamentarians.
When Will Elections Take Place?
In a response to the first ruling on the 1st of March, the president requested the government to prepare an amended draft of the Electoral Districts Law within a month (ending on the 1st of April) and to ensure its consistency with the Constitution. As the deadline drew near, the government announced that it was granted an extension (according to some reports, up to the 10th of April), and that it will engage in a dialogue over the new draft with different political parties. Once the new draft laws have been prepared, the Cabinet of Ministers will discuss and approve them, before sending them to the State Council for a non-binding review. The State Council may send comments to the Cabinet of Ministers, after which the Cabinet sends a further draft to the president for his approval. Once the president issues the draft into a law through publication in the Official Gazette, the Supreme Council on Elections will once more call for elections, state the new timeline and release relevant decrees for the organization of the elections. While it is difficult to predict with certainty when the elections will take place, many commentators don’t expect this to happen before September 2015. The process described above will occur once for each law, and will only get started after an original draft is suggested by the governmental committee that is currently in charge of drafting it. This in itself may take a considerable amount of time, since the proposed changes may include adding new individual seats to the parliament and recalculating the current composition of districts.
Conclusion 
The Electoral Districts Law, and the Parliament’s Law, both the subject of the SCC’s verdicts, are two of three main laws organizing the parliamentary elections, along with the law organizing political rights. As of to date, the new Parliament will be constituted of 567 seats, 420 of which will be elected through competition over individual seats, 120 through competition over a winner-take-all list system, while 27 members will be appointed by the president. This, however, is subject to change if the new laws that will be issued in response to the Constitutional Court’s verdicts amend the composition of Parliament. It is worth noting that this is the second time in less than three years that the Supreme Constitutional Court has deemed the electoral law unconstitutional. In June 2012, the Supreme Council of Armed Forces dissolved the 2011 Parliament after the Constitutional Court found the electoral law that governed the election to be unconstitutional. From June 2012 until today, the highest executive authority, the President, has been in charge of issuing new laws by presidential decrees. While the decision includes important statements relating to principles of fair and equitable representation, the Court did not provide guidance as to whether there’s a “margin of appreciation” or a “margin of error” that it would accept when comparing one district’s representation to the other. This is of crucial importance because it is virtually impossible to guarantee that each member of parliament represents the exact same number of citizens. It remains to be seen whether the government will ask the Court for a clarification of its decision, and how much this would have an impact on the timeline for the elections.   [1] Supreme Constitutional Court, Case No. 18, Judicial Year 37, Official Gazette, Issue No. 9 (bis), 1 March 2015. [2] Supreme Constitutional Court, Case No. 24, Judicial Year 37, Official Gazette, Issue No. 10 (bis), 7 March 2015. [3] Constitutional Declaration, 8 July 2013, Article 30. [4] Supreme Constitutional Court, Case No. 24, Judicial Year 37, Official Gazette, Issue No. 10 (bis), 7 March 2015.
The beginning of March saw a highly interesting judicial development coming out of Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court. On the 1st of March, the Court held that Article 3 of the Electoral Districts Law was unconstitutional.[1] Less than a week later, another law organizing the parliamentary elections was deemed unconstitutional for failing to allow dual citizens to run for parliament.[2] This meant that Egypt’s long-awaited parliamentary elections will have to be yet again postponed. Until the parliament convenes, legislative powers remain with the president, in accordance with the 2014 Constitution.
Background
The date of the parliamentary elections has been the subject of much debate for over a year. The Constitutional Declaration of the 8th of July 2013 originally stated that the president, within 15 days after the new constitution is approved ("the 2014 Constitution"), must call for parliamentary elections to be held within a period of one to two months. According to that timeline, presidential elections were supposed to be called for within a week after parliament had held its first session.[3] After much debate and speculation, the Supreme Council on Elections ("SCE"), a seven-member judicial body created mid-July 2014 and tasked with overseeing this election, announced in early January 2015 that parliamentary elections will be conducted in two phases, starting on March 21 and 22, and ending on April 26 and 27, with possible run-offs on May 6 and 7.
The Constitutional Court’s Decision
On the 1st of March, the Supreme Constitutional Court held that Article 3, the main provision governing the division of electoral districts for individual seats (as opposed to party lists), was unconstitutional. This Article assigned a specific number of seats for each electoral district and stipulated that such allocation will respect fair representation of residents and governorates and equitable representation of voters. This meant that, for example, more densely populated districts would be represented by more seats than their less densely populated counterparts. The Court, however, decided that the allotment of seats to electoral districts was not done in accordance with the constitutional requirement set out in Article 102 of the 2014 Constitution. In its decision, the Court stated that Article 102 requires fair and equitable representation of residents and voters, and that the current division gives voters of some districts more weight than others. The Court arrived at this conclusion, in part, through calculating how many citizens a representative from one district would be representing, and comparing it to the number of another district. The Court found that this exercise revealed that there is a significant disparity between the districts. In applying the ruling, the Administrative Court decided on the 3rd of March to stay the execution of the SCE’s call for the elections. The SCE later announced that it will comply with both rulings and issued a decision to stay its own prior call for elections. Less than a week later, the Court held another elections related law unconstitutional.[4] In deciding on the constitutionality of Article 8 of the Law for the Council of Representatives (commonly referred to as Parliament’s Law), the Court held that it was unconstitutional insofar as it forbade dual citizens from running as candidates. The Court opined that while the Constitution made it clear that the country’s president and prime minister must be of sole Egyptian citizenship, it did not mention this as a condition for parliamentarians.
When Will Elections Take Place?
In a response to the first ruling on the 1st of March, the president requested the government to prepare an amended draft of the Electoral Districts Law within a month (ending on the 1st of April) and to ensure its consistency with the Constitution. As the deadline drew near, the government announced that it was granted an extension (according to some reports, up to the 10th of April), and that it will engage in a dialogue over the new draft with different political parties. Once the new draft laws have been prepared, the Cabinet of Ministers will discuss and approve them, before sending them to the State Council for a non-binding review. The State Council may send comments to the Cabinet of Ministers, after which the Cabinet sends a further draft to the president for his approval. Once the president issues the draft into a law through publication in the Official Gazette, the Supreme Council on Elections will once more call for elections, state the new timeline and release relevant decrees for the organization of the elections. While it is difficult to predict with certainty when the elections will take place, many commentators don’t expect this to happen before September 2015. The process described above will occur once for each law, and will only get started after an original draft is suggested by the governmental committee that is currently in charge of drafting it. This in itself may take a considerable amount of time, since the proposed changes may include adding new individual seats to the parliament and recalculating the current composition of districts.
Conclusion 
The Electoral Districts Law, and the Parliament’s Law, both the subject of the SCC’s verdicts, are two of three main laws organizing the parliamentary elections, along with the law organizing political rights. As of to date, the new Parliament will be constituted of 567 seats, 420 of which will be elected through competition over individual seats, 120 through competition over a winner-take-all list system, while 27 members will be appointed by the president. This, however, is subject to change if the new laws that will be issued in response to the Constitutional Court’s verdicts amend the composition of Parliament. It is worth noting that this is the second time in less than three years that the Supreme Constitutional Court has deemed the electoral law unconstitutional. In June 2012, the Supreme Council of Armed Forces dissolved the 2011 Parliament after the Constitutional Court found the electoral law that governed the election to be unconstitutional. From June 2012 until today, the highest executive authority, the President, has been in charge of issuing new laws by presidential decrees. While the decision includes important statements relating to principles of fair and equitable representation, the Court did not provide guidance as to whether there’s a “margin of appreciation” or a “margin of error” that it would accept when comparing one district’s representation to the other. This is of crucial importance because it is virtually impossible to guarantee that each member of parliament represents the exact same number of citizens. It remains to be seen whether the government will ask the Court for a clarification of its decision, and how much this would have an impact on the timeline for the elections.   [1] Supreme Constitutional Court, Case No. 18, Judicial Year 37, Official Gazette, Issue No. 9 (bis), 1 March 2015. [2] Supreme Constitutional Court, Case No. 24, Judicial Year 37, Official Gazette, Issue No. 10 (bis), 7 March 2015. [3] Constitutional Declaration, 8 July 2013, Article 30. [4] Supreme Constitutional Court, Case No. 24, Judicial Year 37, Official Gazette, Issue No. 10 (bis), 7 March 2015.