Elections law amended to allow for referendum

If only one candidate runs for president, five percent of eligible voters will have to vote for them in order to win, said a judge at the state council Tuesday.

Mahmoud Fawzy, a member of the state council’s legislative department, also told the privately owned news channel CBC Extra that the draft elections law would be presented to interim President Adly Mansour sometime today.

If only one candidate registers for the election, the vote will be a simple up-down with a quorum of five percent of eligible voters.

Two other major amendments were made to the elections law, including keeping a provision that requires the candidate to hold a higher education degree, and removing the High Elections Commission's immunity.

State-owned newspaper Al-Ahram had quoted Ahmed Ashour, a judge with the State Lawsuits Authority, as saying that the committee's immunization violates Article 97 of the Constitution.

In 2012, the High Elections Commission's ruling was not challengeable by law. The Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi won that election, defeating Ahmed Shafiq, former President Hosni Mubarak’s last prime minister, in the run-offs.

According to the transitional roadmap announced in July following Morsi’s ouster, by the military following mass protests, presidential elections should be held within 90 days of the announcement of the new Constitution. The last possible day within this window is April 18.