Excluding Brotherhood could delay parliamentary elections in Egypt

Several complicated issues, including limits of president’s power, internal divisions, fighting terrorism, political shakeup, economic crises, excluding the Muslim Brotherhood and instability in the region are among the factors which might lead to putting off parliamentarian elections in Egypt.

Speaking to almesryoon.com, lecturer of political sciences in Cairo University Mustafa Alawi said: “The current regime has not held the parliamentary elections because of the exclusion of a large faction from the political arena – Muslim Brotherhood.”

He also said that the “instable regional situation, mainly in Libya, and feelings of insecurity among Egyptians are also reasons behind the postponement of the elections.”

For his part, political analyst Hasan Naf’ah said: “The sharp internal division pushed the regime to evade the parliamentary elections, the third step of the roadmap… This will push the international community to criticise Egypt.”

Naf’ah said that not holding parliamentary elections eight months after the presidential elections might lead the country to the “brink of the collapse”.

He was not ambitious about the parliamentary elections because a large faction would not be included, he said.

Meanwhile, economic expert Maher Hashem said President Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi is able to decide when to hold parliamentary elections, warning that putting off the elections would negatively affect the prospective economic conference planned to attract foreign investment to Egypt.

He said that the political factions currently active in Egypt are “fake” as they do not “really exist” on the street.

“These factions are unable to run themselves. What about when they represent the Egyptians in parliament. This is what the regime fears,” he said.