Egypt sets parliamentary poll dates as Sisi cements grip

Egypt said Jan. 8 it is to hold parliamentary elections from March 21 but analysts said the new legislature will offer no meaningful opposition to President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's iron-fisted rule.
      
The elections, which will be held in phases culminating on May 7, will be the first since Sisi overthrew his Islamist predecessor Mohamed Morsi on July 3, 2013.
      
But with Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood crushed in a crackdown that has left hundreds dead and even secular opposition groups hit by jail terms, the elections are likely to be dominated by Sisi loyalists.
      
"It is difficult to see there being much in the way of opposition on issues relating to governance and human rights from within any new parliament in this current environment," said H. A. Hellyer of Centre for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution.
      
The vote will be held under a complex electoral system that was originally designed to produce as representative a parliament as possible.
      
Some of the 567 seats will be contested on nationwide party lists. Others will be fought on a first-past-the post basis in individual constituencies, where second-round runoffs will be held where necessary.
      
But critics say the process has been emptied of meaning now that the main opposition groups have been outlawed.
      
The top leaders of the once dominant Muslim Brotherhood are all on trial on charges that could carry the death penalty. Even verbal expressions of support have been punishable by heavy jail terms since the movement was declared a terrorist organisation in December 2013.
      
Tough restrictions on the right to protest have also seen several secular leaders of the Arab Spring uprising that...