[JURIST] A judge for Egypt’s Administrative Court on Tuesday suspended the country’s upcoming parliamentary elections indefinitely after another court declared the election law’s provision on voting districts unconstitutional. The decision by Judge Yahia Darouri was expected after the Supreme Constitutional Court [official website] struck down [JURIST report] part of law regulating the vote earlier this week. The country’s Supreme Election Committee has said that it will set up a new timetable [Daily News Egypt report] for elections after the law is amended. The parliamentary vote was initially set to take place in phases beginning on March 22. The vote is the final phase in a transition period following ouster of president Mohamed Morsi [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] in 2013. The first two phases of the transition were completed last year when the new constitution was adopted by referendum, and when the country elected [JURIST reports] former army chief Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi [BBC profile] as president.

The upcoming elections would mark the first time the country has an acting legislature since the court dissolved [JURIST report] the parliament in June 2012, after finding that one-third of its members were elected illegally. Then-president Mohammed Morsi attempted [JURIST report] to reconvene the parliament, but the court suspended the decree. In 2013 the Supreme Administrative Court delayed [JURIST report] parliamentary elections by referring the elections to the higher court to be reviewed on technical grounds. The court later found [JURIST report] provisions of the nation’s revised parliament and election law invalid under the Egyptian constitution. The latest election laws were enacted last December.