Cairo: Egypt will begin its long-awaited parliment elections in October, the election commision announced on Sunday.
The polls will be held in two stages, with the first scheduled for October 18 to 19, the commision's head Ayman Abbas told a press conference in Cairo. The first stage will be held in 14 of Egypt's 27 governorates.
The second poll has been scheduled for November 22 to 23 in the other 13 governorates, including Cairo. In case of run-offs, polls will be held from December 1 to 2.
Parlimentary hopefulls will have to register for the polls from September 1 to 10, the commision said.
The elections will be based on a mixed system combining individual and party candidacies.
The new parliament will comprise 568 elected members including 448 for independents and 120 for political parties.
The elections were originally set to begin in late March, but were put on hold after Egypt's top court invalidated some parts of electoral laws.
The forthcoming polls will be the third and final stage in an army-backed roadmap announced following the ouster of Islamist president Mohammad Mursi in 2013. Last year, Egyptians endorsed a new constitution replacing a charter crafted by Islamists. In May 2014, former defence minister Abdul Fattah Al Sissi the won presidential elections.
In June 2012, days before Mursi took office, the Constitutional Court dissolved the parliament where his Islamist backers wielded the majority. Mursi was deposed by the military in July 2013 following enormous street protests against his one-year rule. His Muslim Brotherhood group was later outlawed and listed as a terrorist organisation.
