Egypt's ruling military council amends election law

Egypt's ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) Saturday decided to scrap the fifth article of the election law which reserved a third of seats in the parliament for independents and drew a wave of anger among many political groups. On Oct. 1, the SCAF modified the fifth article and allowed political parties to contest a third of the seats along with independent candidates, causing boycott threat from some parties and movements. According to the fifth item, two thirds of the seats in the parliament would be elected through the party-list system while one third would be decided via the individual-candidate system. Egypt is scheduled to start parliamentary elections on Nov. 28.