esentation for all or part of the seats on the People's Assembly and the Shura Council. However, successive SCC rulings rendered this unconstitutional. All elections in the 1990s and 2000s were conducted via a first-past-the-post system with a second-round run-off to secure the majority of the votes. The first post-Mubarak election is conducted through a mixed electoral system that is comprised of individual candidates in majoritarian two-member districts (one-third of the total seats) and proportional representation of closed party lists (two third of the total seats). These complex electoral rules are likely to be revisited during the process of constitutional drafting. Any proportional representation needs to be constitutionally mandated as the established jurisprudence of the ruled such provisions tional on the ground it against individual candidates.
Another bone of contention ters on the unusual stipulation 50% occupational quota for farmers and workers. In the height of Nasser's socialist policies in the 1960s, this quota for "workers and farmers" serving in the parliament was constitutionally mandated.16 The logic was to ensure enough participation from the majority of Egyptians who were manual workers. In practice, this provision was continuously distorted to favor ruling party candidates and genuine farmers and workers seldom ran or got elected.17
The SCAF preferred to postpone this predicament and kept the quota for the parliamentary elections. Many want Egypt's incoming constitution to abolish this practice altogether allowing citizens to compete on equal footing for parliamentary seats. Advocates of such an opinion argue that this quota is undemocratic and outdated.18 Leftists, however, agree that the application of this quota has been lacking but seek to amend it to guarantee the genuine representation of farmers and workers in parliament. While the jury is still out about this quota, it seems that even the backers of this provision admit it needs to be modified.
Female representation is another issue related to the composition of the legislative assemblies. The women quota was implanted for the first time during the 2010 elections. The ill-fated parliament lasted only for a period of three months and was dissolved by the SCAF shortly after they took power on February 11, 2011. The constitutional proclamation and the amendments of the Political Participation Law in 2011 removed the allocated seats for females, replacing it with a provision to include at least one female in each party list.19 In practice, however, almost all parties positioned female candidates on the bottom half of the lists, reducing their chances of success. This is particularly true because in all likelihood no party list would gain 50% of the votes in any district. The expected extremely small number of female MPs would likely bring this issue to the forefront during the constitutional drafting process. In a traditional society like Egypt, it is exceptionally hard for a female candidate to overcome the societal prejudices in most districts outside the large cities. While the rhetoric of all parties, liberals, Islamic, and leftists are supportive of female representation in the nation's legislative assemblies, actions have been lacking. Withsome coordinated pressure, however, it seems reasonabie that the constituent assembly might be inclined to amend the electoral procedures to ensure some women representation. It is unlikely that the quota system will be restored but mandating ranking female candidates high on the parties' lists might go a long way to provide Egyptian females with a necessary voice in the nation's democratically elected legislative bodies.
Another issue about the electoral procedures is related to Egyptian expatriates. The estimates for the number of Egyptian overseas vary considerably, but the conservative estimates put it at several millions. Historically, Egyptian constitutions and legislation were silent on this issue. Most Egyptian expatriates were also not very keen to participate in elections, as the results wer