Egypt’s Administrative Court yesterday issued a ruling that effectively halts the March-April parliamentary election process, judicial sources said.
The state-run al-Ahram news portal confirmed the Administrative Court’s ruling.
“The Administrative Court ruled ... halting the execution of the measures taken by the High Election Committee based on the ruling of the Constitutional Court,” a judicial source said, citing the ruling.
Photo: AFP
Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court on Sunday found part of an election law that has to do with defining voting districts unconstitutional.
It was not immediately clear how long the process would be pushed back. The first phase of the election was due to start on March 22.
The election is the final step in a political road map that the army announced in July 2013.
Egypt has been without a parliament since June 2012, when the Supreme Constitutional Court dissolved the democratically elected main chamber, reversing a major accomplishment of the 2011 uprising that toppled former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.
The ruling came one day after two people were killed and nine wounded, including seven policemen, in a bomb explosion outside the Egyptian Supreme Court in Cairo, the health ministry said.
Ministry spokesman Hossam Abdel Ghaffar said that a 22-year-old man” died of injuries sustained in his backbone” in the attack.
Another man, aged 24, who had suffered head injuries and internal bleeding, also died of his wounds, he said.
Hospital officials earlier said that a man was in critical condition as the blast blew away part of his skull and brain.
Abdel Ghaffar said nine people, including seven policemen, were wounded in the attack.
The explosion appeared to be aimed at a police checkpoint near the court, a hospital official said.
Two other minor bombs were set off in Cairo several hours later on Monday, one outside a fire station and another in front of a police station, but there were no casualties, the Ministry of the Interior said on its Facebook page.
Two civilians died in a bombing outside a police station in southern Egypt on Sunday.
Militants have regularly set off bombs in the capital, mostly targeting police, since the 2013 military overthrow of former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi unleashed a deadly crackdown on his supporters.
Additional reporting by AFP
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