Egypt to Set Rules Next Month for Parliamentary Vote

Cairo: Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi announced on Sunday that procedures that would pave the way for a parliamentary election would start before July 18, state television reported. It gave no immediate details or dates for the vote itself. The procedures are expected to include the regulations and set the time frame and eligible candidates for the vote.

Sisi orchestrated the ousting in July of the elected Islamist president, Mohamed Mursi after mass unrest against him. He then installed an interim government and set a political plan that promised a presidential and parliamentary vote before the end of the year.

In the end, the presidential vote came first, won by Sisi last month.

The state this month passed a law to allow individual candidates to take the majority of seats in parliament, rather than party lists, and which drew criticism from many political parties who said it would weaken them.

Most political parties are weak or new, with many created only after a 2011 uprising ousted autocratic president Hosni Mubarak who ruled for 30 years.

Of the 540 parliament members to be elected, 420 will be drawn from individual candidate lists while 120 will be from closed lists.

Earlier in the day, Sisi held talks with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry which were focused on U.S. concerns about Egypt's crackdown on Mursi's now outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, and the unrest in Iraq.