Egypt court ruling opens way for possible poll delay

Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court has ruled that an article in an election-related law was unconstitutional, paving the way for a possible delay in long-awaited parliamentary elections.

The Supreme Constitutional Court’s decision on the clause in the election law that draws voting districts could be used as grounds for delaying parliamentary elections due to start later this month and continue until May.

Egypt has been without a parliament since June 2012, when the same court dissolved the democratically elected main chamber, reversing a major accomplishment of the 2011 uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak.

The forthcoming election is the third and final step in a road map announced by then-military chief Abdel Fattah el-Sisi when he ousted Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013.

The first two steps were the adoption of a new constitution by referendum in 2014 and a presidential election that was comfortably won by Sisi later that year.