Minister of State for Legal Affairs and Parliamentary Councils Hatem Bagato submitted Saturday a draft law on electoral constituencies and governorates' distribution of seats in the House of Representatives, written by the cabinet and to be considered by the Shura Council’s legislative committee.
The new draft law would increase the total number of parliamentary seats awarded to governorates from 546 to 600, after the Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC) rejected an earlier plan to redistribute the amount of seats awarded to each governorate.
Sources from the committee told Al-Masry Al-Youm that the cabinet refused to decrease the number of seats allocated to governorates for fear this plan would be objected to. The Shura Council supports the court’s decision, according to the source, who expected the committee to approve the proposed amendment.
In May, the SCC called for either reconsidering seat distribution among governorates or decreasing the total number of seats, claiming that the constitution demands fair representation by ensuring that each member of parliament represents an equal number of voters in his or her constituency.
The court explained that there are 1,718,000 voters in Minya governorate who are represented by 24 representatives, whereas there are 2,393,000 voters in Sohag governorate who are represented by 30 representatives.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
