Egyptian courts ordered the cancellation of Sunday's parliamentary election in 24 districts after orders to reinstate opposition and independent candidates were ignored, a judicial source said on Friday.
Administrative courts ruled on Thursday that the election could not be held in 12 districts in the Nile Delta governorates of Kafr el-Sheikh and Qalyubiya and in two districts in the southern governorates Sohag and Assyut, he said.
An Alexandria court cancelled the vote in 10 of the Mediterranean coastal city's 11 districts on Wednesday.
Earlier, the High Elections Commission had ignored court orders to reinstate opposition and independent candidates.
The court orders will probably be suspended as the ruling National Democratic Party contests them.
Each of Egypt's 254 districts returns two representatives to parliament.
Many of the candidates whose applications were rejected by the election commission, which is largely appointed by the NDP-dominated legislature, belong to the Muslim Brotherhood. Others are independents.
The banned Islamist group has 130 candidates registered as independents left in the race for parliament's 508 elected seats.
On Thursday, public prosecutor Abdel Maguid Mahmud ordered an investigation into NDP complaints that Brotherhood candidates should be disqualified because they are misrepresenting themselves as independents.
Police have arrested more than 1,000 of the Islamists' supporters since they announced in October that they would run in the election.
