An Egyptian administrative court will convene on Tuesday to examine a lawsuit calling for the application of laws guaranteeing Egyptian nationals living abroad the right to vote in national elections. The session was originally scheduled for today, Sunday, but was postponed for two days to allow testimonials to be heard.
The lawsuit was raised by the Cairo-based Hisham Mubarak Law Centre, a non-governmental rights organisation, and lawyer Khaled Ali, head of the Egyptian Centre for Economic and Social Rights.
The lawsuit calls for the establishment of voting centres at Egyptian embassies abroad at which Egyptian expats can cast ballots in upcoming polls for the two houses of Egypt’s Parliament.
The lawsuit states that Egypt’s ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), which has governed the nation’s affairs since the February ouster of former president Hosni Mubarak, has “promised more than once to realise the demands of Egyptian expatriates... and their right to vote in parliamentary and presidential elections.” The SCAF, however, “has not taken any serious steps to achieve this,” the lawsuit charges.
The current state of affairs, the lawsuit goes on to assert, “contradicts the Constitutional Declaration [issued by the SCAF in March] and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights."
Egypt’s first post-Mubarak parliamentary polls are scheduled to kick off late next month, followed by elections for the Shura Council (the upper house of parliament) in January.
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