Egypt signals parliamentary elections will be held by March 2015

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi told visiting U.S. businessmen on Tuesday that a parliamentary election will be held by March 2015, trying to reassure them that the delayed poll will not be put off indefinitely. Egypt has been without a parliament since June 2012, when a court dissolved the democratically-elected main chamber, reversing a major accomplishment of the 2011 uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak. Under Islamist President Mohamed Mursi, legislative power was transferred to the upper house pending a fresh election.

We are still waiting for the constituencies law and preparations for the elections are ongoing.

Election commission spokesman Medhat Idriss

A political roadmap declared after Mursi’s ousting envisaged a parliamentary election by November - six months after the May presidential poll which brought Sisi, the army chief behind Mursi’s overthrow, to the presidency. No date has been set for the parliamentary poll, but Sisi said it would go ahead before a major economic summit in March that Egypt hopes will boost investment and aid.

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