A senior Egyptian military official said on Thursday that the ruling Spreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) has yet to set a date for nominating candidates for November parliamentary elections.
Assistant Minister of Defense for Legal Affairs Mamdouh Shahin said that though the exact date for applications has also not been set, it will be at the end of September. Shahin said the elections will be held in three phases, with intervals of 15 days between each one.
Shahin also said preparations are to start in September, followed by elections within 30 days of them ending
Several political groups had earlier voiced disapproval of an elections law approved by the SCAF on 20 July.
A number of political powers believe that the government failed to fully consider reservations expressed by experts when the proposed law was issued for public debate in June.
Opponents say that by combining list-based and single-winner election systems, the law does not satisfy many political groups. They believe that the single-winner system opens channels for vote-buying and tribal considerations to dominate the balloting process.
In a single-winner systems, the voter casts a ballot for a specific candidate in her or his district. List-based elections are based more on political parties as opposed to individual candidates; voters choose a slate of candidates fielded by the party or coalition of parties they prefer and the number of candidates the party gets elected to parliament corresponds to the percentage of votes its list receives.
