The Free Egyptians party has announced on Monday that the party is going to boycott the upcoming upper house elections scheduled to be held from 29 January until 22 February 2012.

The elections were initially scheduled to be held in three stages ending on 12 March, but the military council reduced this in December to two stages, under pressure to shorten the transitional period under military rule.

In its Monday press conference, the party announced that it was going to boycott the upper house elections because of the numerous violations that took place during the parliamentary elections. According to the party, violations such as the use of religion in campaigning and campaigning inside the polling stations were completely ignored by the authorities.

The party stated also that it believed the upper house elections should be cancelled, describing them as a “waste of time.”

The Free Egyptians party has called on the SCAF to cancel the upper house election and has also demanded that the SCAF issue a new constitutional declaration that allows any existing and established party to be able to nominate a presidential candidate without representation in the parliament as required in the constitutional declaration issued last March 2011. 

According to the constitutional declaration issued in March 2011 a presidential candidate should either win the endorsement of 30 elected MPs or 30,000 registered voters from 15 governorates. The declaration also gave parties with at least one elected seat in parliament the right to nominate one of its members to presidency.

The Free Egyptians Party ran during parliamentary elections under the umbrella of the liberal Egyptian Bloc.