The 2011/2012 Parliamentary and Presidential Elections In late September 2011, after significant changes to the parliamentary electoral system and approximately two months prior to the start of parliamentary elections, the SCAF issued Decree-Law 120/2011, which further amended the electoral law. Article 5 of the decree-law stated that anyone running for an individual candidate seat in the PA or SC could not be a member of any political party, and would need to remain unaffiliated with any political party while a member of either body. The two most powerful electoral coalitions, the Egyptian Bloc and the Muslim Brotherhooddominated Democratic Alliance for Egypt, both rejected Article 5. The coalitions claimed it would marginalize parties and open the door for candidates affiliated with the former National Democratic Party (NDP) of President Hosni Mubarak to obtain a vast majority of seats reserved for independents. On October 8, after many parties threatened to boycott the elections, the SCAF agreed to remove Article 5 and allow party members to compete in individual candidacy races.6 This allowed political parties to contest all elected seats in parliament, while only allowing individual candidates to contest one-third of the elected seats. People’s Assembly Elections The final results of the PA elections, certified by the High Judicial Election Commission (HJEC), show that under this electoral system the Islamist alliances (Democratic Alliance for Egypt and Islamist Bloc) won a clear majority of seats in the PA, including an overwhelming majority (80%) of the individual candidate seats. Candidates not affiliated with any party won only 15 percent of individual candidate seats.7 After the election, a challenge to the electoral law was filed in court by an independent candidate who was knocked out of competition for an individual candidate seat by political party candidates, arguing that it was unconstitutional to allow political parties to contest individual candidate seats, while not allowing individual candidates to contest PR seats. This challenge was the basis of the SCC’s decision to invalidate the electoral system as unconstitutional, and thus disband the PA. The SCC’s decision in this case and its implications are discussed below. Shura Council Elections The results of the SC elections, certified by the HJEC, show that Islamist alliances also won an absolute majority, regardless of political affiliations of the 90 presidential appointees.8 A challenge was filed in court against the constitutionality of the electoral system used to elect the SC; it can be expected that a similar decision will be reached in that case, as was reached in the case concerning PA elections. However, on July 19 the State Council’s Administrative Court referred the appeals to dissolve the PA and SC to the State Commissioner’s Authority, a judicial body that advises the government, which will write reports on the case to help the court make a ruling.9 At the time of writing, this issue remains unresolved. Presidential Elections A total of 23 candidates were nominated to contest the presidential elections. However, 10 of those candidates were disqualified by the Supreme Presidential Election Commission (SPEC), which ruled 6 SCAF Decree-Law 123/2011, issued on October 8, 2011. Please see Annex 2(a) for the final results of the People’s Assembly elections. 8 Please see Annex 2(b) for the final results of the Shura Council elections. 9 “Postponement amid court chaos.” Daily News Egypt. July 17, 2012. http://thedailynewsegypt.com/2012/07/17/postponement-amid-court-chaos/ 7 IFES Page 3 of 18