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Egypt's Prime Minister said Thursday that the government and political forces are getting close to seeing eye to eye on proposed amendments to laws regulating parliamentary elections after the poll was shelved last month due to legal obstacles.

PM Ibrahim Mahlab made his remarks following the first in a series of national dialogue meetings with political forces in an effort to find common ground over electoral laws that were criticised by several political parties before one of the legislations was successfully challenged by a court ruling last month.

Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Ibrahim Al-Heneidy disclosed on Tuesday that a meeting between Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab and representatives of mainstream political parties will be held very soon to pave the way for Egypt's long-delayed parliamentary elections.

"The meeting is expected after a two-day Arab summit scheduled to be held at the Red Sea resort of Sharm Sheikh on 28-29 March, aiming to close the gap between the government and opposition over a number of electoral reforms that can open the way for parliamentary elections," said Heneidy.

After two election laws were ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC) on the first and seventh of March, Egypt's political parties were prompted to introduce amendments they deem necessary for the long-delayed parliamentary polls to be held without facing new constitutional challenges. 

A disciplinary council sent to retirement on Saturday 31 judges accused of unlawfully engaging in politics and supporting a certain political faction, while it turned down the case against 25 other judges. 

Judge Mohamed Shereen referred in October 2014 60 judges to the disciplinary council, accusing them of signing a statement supporting ousted Islamist President Mohamed Mursi during the pro-Mursi Rabaa al-Adawiya camp on July 24, 2013. 

The committee responsible for amending the Election Constituency Division Law seeks to increase the number of seats elected as single candidates from 420 to 440, a member of the committee told Al-Ahram Arabic news website on Sunday.

The Parliamentary Elections law as it is now allocates 420 seats to be elected as single candidates and 120 for party lists, in addition to 27 to be appointed by the president upon recommendations from respective state councils and professional syndicates.

The Court declared Article 3 of the law on electoral districting unconstitutional, which means it must be amended before the coming parliamentary elections are rescheduled, days before they were due to start. 

The ruling could be seen as just a technical glitch that can be rectified by forming a committee, amending two or three articles of the law, and rescheduling election procedures. Seen this way, it’s a simple matter of little concern.

Egypt's administrative court on Tuesday ordered a halt to all preparations for parliamentary elections previously scheduled to start on 21 March.

 The administrative court ordered the High Election Commission (HEC) to cease all its preliminary preparations for the elections in accordance with Sunday’s Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC) decision that deemed parts of the electoral laws unconstitutional.

Following the SCC's decision, the HEC referred its rulings to the administrative court for a final legal review.

Egypt has postponed parliamentary elections originally set to start in less than three weeks, after the country's highest court struck down one of the laws regulating the electoral process.

On Sunday morning, Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC) ruled that the country’s Elections Constituency Division Law is unconstitutional.

Shortly after the SCC issued its ruling, a spokesman of the Higher Electoral Commission (HEC) said that the parliamentary elections, previously scheduled to start on 21 March, would be put on hold for the time being.