Egypt announces parliament elections, vote to start March 21

CAIRO – Egypt has scheduled long-awaited parliamentary elections. The vote will be staggered over seven weeks, starting March 21 and ending May 7.

Thursday's announcement came from the head of the Supreme Election Committee, Ayman Abbas. He says the date for candidates to come forward has yet to be set.

Egypt is currently without a parliament, after the nation's last elected house was dissolved by a 2012 court ruling.  The previous house was controlled by Islamists, who came to power in the country's first democratically held vote following the 2011 uprising that ousted longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

The Muslim Brotherhood of former Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, ousted in 2013, has since been declared a terrorist group and cannot run.