Egypt’s National Council for Human Rights (NCHR) said on Tuesday that it will temporary freeze the activity of two of its members who are running in the upcoming parliamentary elections, a council statement read.
The council will freeze the activities of rights lawyer Hafez Abu-Seida and journalist Mohamed Abdel-Aziz until the end of the parliamentary elections as the council is one of the entities monitoring the polls and it wants to adhere to “objectivity and independence” during monitoring.
The parliamentary elections will take place over two stages on 17-18 October and 1-2 December.
Egypt’s parliament – or the House of Representatives – will comprise of 596 members, 448 elected as independents and 120 from party-based lists. The remaining 28 seats will be filled by presidential appointees. Egypt has around 55 million registered voters.
The country has been without a parliament since the House of Representatives elected in late 2011 was dissolved in June 2012, following a court ruling that judged the law regulating its election to be unconstitutional.
President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi holds legislative powers until an elected parliament convenes.
Once a parliament is elected, its members will have to vote on all laws issued by El-Sisi and his predecessor, interim president Adly Mansour.
source: Ahram Online
