Local council elections will take place after presidential elections and are likely to be based on the old local council law, Saber Abdel-Sadek MP, chairman of parliament's local administration committee, has said in an interview with the Freedom and Justice Party's newspaper.

A new law is being drafted but is not yet complete.

A variety of groups are involved in drafting the new law, including the general secretariat of local governance, the Ministry of Urban Development and specialists from Cairo University's faculty of economics and political science.

Local councils were dissolved by a decree of the Administrative Court on 28 June 2011. This was significant because the councils were regarded as a tool of the former regime.

At the time, General Mamdouh Shahin, a member of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, stated that local councils would not be dissolved without a court ruling. However, the dissolution went ahead without judicial approval.

The new bill will allow for more decentralisation of power to local councils and governorates, Abdel-Sadek said.

Adequate time is needed to prepare the new law because local councils are the "nerve centres" of any community.