Egypt court to determine fate of parliamentary elections

CAIRO — Egypt’s highest court said Wednesday it will determine next week whether the laws regulating the country’s parliamentary elections are constitutional — a decision that could further delay the vote scheduled for next month.

The elections are the last phase in Egypt’s transitional plan, which was put into effect following the July 2013 military ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi after mass protests against him.

Egypt has been without a parliament since 2012, when a court ordered the first democratically elected house dissolved, saying the law governing the balloting was unconstitutional and violated the principle of equality among candidates. At the time, dissolving the parliament was the first blow to Morsi’s Islamists, the Muslim Brotherhood group that dominated the lower house.

The 2015 elections have already been mired in controversy. The Brotherhood has been declared a terrorist organisation following Morsi’s ouster and is not taking part in the vote. Islamists in general have been reeling under a security crackdown with most of their leaders and many supporters behind bars.