Egypt brings in new law for legislative polls

Interim President of Egypt Adly Mansour speaks to the press in Athens on January 20, 2014. By Louisa Gouliamaki (AFP/File)

Cairo (AFP) - Interim President Adly Mansour on Thursday passed a law for parliamentary elections guaranteeing at least 12 percent of seats to women and four percent to Egypt's minority Christians.

The legislative polls will be the final stage of a "roadmap" to democracy announced by former army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who himself was elected president last week.

He unveiled the roadmap after deposing Egypt's Islamist president Mohamed Morsi last July.

The presidency, in a statement, said that under the law passed by Mansour, who has the power to legislate in the absence of parliament which has been dissolved, the house will be made up to 567 members, of whom 540 will be elected and the rest named by the president.

Twenty-four seats will be reserved for Coptic Christians and 70 for women, in keeping with Egypt's constitution, the president's office said.

It said the law would allow the electoral commission to set a date for legislative elections.