The veteran Wafd Party has demanded the removal of Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb after a new administrative court ruling annulled Mehleb's decision to redraw electoral districts for the upcoming parliament elections slated for October 18.
The Administrative Court in Qena accepted a challenge made by a lawyer on Monday concerning Mehleb's changes. The Cabinet had supported the decision in April and it was passed by the Presidency in July.
The petition said the recent change to Qena’s constituencies map, while purportedly the result of a technical error, could suggest electoral rigging.
Commenting on the ruling, Yasser al-Hodeiby, assistant chairman of Wafd Party, demanded the removal of both the prime minister and the transitional justice minister.
‘We respect judicial rulings, but the government is apparently becoming legally and politically blind,” Hodeiby said. He added that by introducing the amendment, the Cabinet had encroached upon the presidency’s exclusive legislative powers.
Parliamentary elections, anticipated since the ouster of former president Mohamed Morsi in 2013, were initially scheduled for March 2015, but were postponed over a court ruling that rendered the electoral law unconstitutional.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
