Egypt's Shura council (upper house of the parliament) endorsed Thursday amendments referred by the constitutional court over the parliamentary election law, official news agency MENA reported.

The amendments came aftert the constitutional court rejected Monday the parliamentary election law submitted by the Shura Council, deeming some of its articles as "unconstitutional."

The court's commissioners authority, which submits reports to the court over the constitutionality of laws, challenged the constitutionality of an article that allows party members to compete for individual seats, which means sharing the chance of the independent nominees.

The commissioners also challenged articles connected with the division of constituencies nationwide and the judicial supervision over voting of Egyptians abroad, along with a woman-related article which violates the principle of equality.

The court also ruled as "unconstitutional" other articles connected with the definition of candidate and the disenfranchisement law, and decided that any member who changed his political affiliation during his tenure in the parliament should be stripped of his membership.

The Shura Council has endorsed all the amendments the court required. It also changed an article on military service, allowing anyone exempted from military service to be nominated without any juridical ruling, which means all the political detainees during former President Hosni Mubarak's rule have the right to enter the parliament, the report added.

The Shura Council has temporarily assumed the full legislative authority from President Mohamed Morsi since December 2012, and will hold the authority until the House of Representatives (lower house) is elected. Endi

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)