The Democratic Current electoral coalition decided on Monday not to issue a binding decision for its members regarding whether to join or boycott Egypt’s upcoming parliamentary polls, Al-Ahram Arabic news website reported.
The alliance, which includes the left-of-centre Constitution Party, the leftist Socialist Popular Alliance party (SPAP), Nasserist Karama party and the Egyptian Popular Current founded by two-time presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabahi, had met in January to discuss its stance but took no decision.
It had said its participation in the poll was subject to the sacking of the interior minister along with other demands, amid uproar sparked by the shooting to death of a member of the SPAP during a memorial march for 25 January martyrs.
However, both SPAP and the Constitution party – founded by prominent liberal politician Mohamed ElBaradei after Egypt’s 2011 revolution – have already announced their decisions to boycott this week.
The Karama party told Al-Ahram it is still mulling the decision.
Aside from the sacking of the minister of interior, the alliance had upheld longstanding demands as conditions to take part in the poll. These included amending a restrictive protest law, amending the elections law which gives the majority of seats to individual candidacy votes, and the release of detainees arrested for protesting.
Khaled Dawood, spokesperson for the Constitution party, told Al-Ahram that President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi did not follow through on promises of pardoning imprisoned political activists.
The door for candidate registration opened on 8 February. Out of 567 seats, 120 will be chosen by party-lists in four constituencies in a closed-list system.
The first stage of the vote will take place 21-22 March for expats and 22-23 for residents in Egypt while the second stage takes place on 25-26 April for expats and 26-27 April for Egypt residents.