BICOM

The Freedom and Justice Party – the party of the Muslim Brotherhood movement – looks set to win the elections for the lower house of the Egyptian parliament. The party has won the first two rounds of the voting, with the third round set to begin this week. Final results for the election to the lower house are expected by 13 January. Elections for the upper house of the parliament are due to take place in January and February. Presidential elections, meanwhile, are scheduled to take place before July.

The new parliament is to select a 100-member committee that will begin the writing of a new constitution for Egypt. The hard-line Salafi Islamist al-Nour party was second in the elections so far, raising the possibility of an Islamist majority in the Egyptian parliament. However, leaders of the Freedom and Justice Party have sought to calm fears in the West, stating that ‘all political forces’ in Egypt will play their part in the writing of the new constitution.