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| Africa North | |
| Egypt Islamists seek more gains in upper house polls | |
| 2012-01-30 | |
| CAIRO: Polls opened on Sunday in an election for Egypt’s upper house of parliament, with Islamists seeking to repeat the success they enjoyed in elections for the lower house. The parliamentary votes, which began in late November, are the first since a popular uprising toppled President Hosni Mubarak last February. The Muslim Brotherhood, which was banned during his rule, won 47 percent of lower house seats, far more than any other party, and a low turnout on Sunday was blamed by some voters on the feeling that the upper house vote now mattered little. After the lower house election that saw an unprecedented turnout and was hailed as Egypt’s most democratic since military officers overthrew the king in 1952, some Egyptians knew nothing of the upper house vote. The powers of the upper house are limited and it cannot block legislation in the lower house. However, its members must be consulted before lower house MPs pass any bill. Under an interim constitution, both houses are responsible for picking a 100-strong assembly that will write a new constitution to replace the one that helped keep Mubarak in power for three decades. “The Shoura council (upper house) elections are as important as the People’s Assembly (lower house) elections,” said Hussein Ibrahim, a member of the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party and head of its parliamentary bloc.
The remaining 90 will be appointed by Egypt’s next president, expected to be elected in June according a transition timetable drawn up by the military council to whom Mubarak handed power nearly a year ago. “The elected part of the Shoura council will convene without the appointed seats until presidential elections are held and the new president appoints the other 90 members,” an official from the body overseeing the election told Reuters. | |
| Posted by:Steve White |