Egypt's parliament (Photo: Reuters)
Egypt is set to increase its members of parliament by almost 30 percent under a new draft election law expected to be finalised in two months, an official has said.
Egypt's lower house of parliament was comprised of 444 seats under former president Mohamed Morsi and was dominated by Islamists who won every election since the 2011 uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak.
A revised law setting new rules for the upcoming parliamentary elections will increase the lower house seats to 630, spokesperson of the law drafting committee Judge Mohamed Fawzy said in comments reported by Reuters' Aswat Masriya.
Thirty of the members will be named by the head of state while the rest will be elected in the parliamentary poll, Fawzy said.
Only ten members of the 2012 parliament were appointed by the president.
Egypt's lower house was dissolved by military-led authorities in line with a court ruling shortly before Morsi was elected in June 2012. Only the upper house, the Shura Council, had remained active during Morsi's year in office.
The increase in the number of members is meant to expand parliamentary constituencies so as to match Egypt's whopping 54 million eligible voters, Fawzy said.
The new parliamentary election law is due to be instituted by mid-July, according to officials.
Egypt's parliamentary poll, scheduled to be held once a new president is sworn in office early June, will allow candidates to run either as individuals or on party lists, and will be called for by the electoral committee rather than the president.
The presidential race, in which former army chief Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi is a front-runner, is due to take place on 26-27 May.
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