Egypt's Higher Election Committee (HEC) announced on Sunday a two-day extension in the registration period for candidates running in the upcoming parliamentary elections.

The registration period, which started on 8 February, will close on Thursday 19th instead of the 17th of this month.

HEC attributed the extension to allowing hopeful candidates enough time to complete the needed papers and medical tests.

A High administrative court decision, issued on 12 February, decreased the number of medical committees hopeful candidates have to go through to be declared physically and mentally fit to run in the elections.

HEC also said the extension will give Egyptians living abroad, who wish to run for the elections, enough time to undergo the required medical tests in hospitals specified by their embassies.

There are eight seats allocated in the parliament for Egyptians living abroad.  

HEC also announced, in cooperation with the ministry of foreign affairs, that those residing abroad will be able to vote in Egyptian embassies and consulates by showing only their national IDs or passports and without prior registration.

Parliamentary polls will be held in two rounds, beginning on 21-22 March and ending on 6-7 May.

Egypt's new parliament will include 567 MPs, with 420 independents and 120 party-based deputies. The president will appoint 27 MPs.

An estimated 54 million Egyptians are registered as eligible voters in the coming poll.

This will be the second parliamentary elections since the 2011 uprising against former autocrat Hosni Mubarak and the first since the ouster of Islamist Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

Islamists won a majority of seats in the 2011-2012 parliamentary elections.

The 2011-2012 parliament was dissolved in June 2012 after a court order deemed the elections law unconstitutional. 

The Muslim Brotherhood, from which Morsi hails, was declared by the Cabinet in late 2013 a terrorist organisation. The Brotherhood occupied the most seats in the 2012 parliament.