Parliamentary elections which will be completed in four stages nationwide. They are set to start April 27 and finish in late June.

The four stage election will take place first on April 27-28. Then on May 15-16, June 2-3 and 19-20, with runoffs taking place one week after each stage, according to the official decree released by the president’s spokesman.

Earlier on Thursday, the upper house of parliament, the Shura Council, agreed to amend the elections law based on changes proposed by the High Constitution Court, state-run Al Ahram website reported.

These will be the first elections since Egypt’s highest court dissolved the lower house of parliament last June ruling it invalid. The upper house, the Shura Council, has continued to meet.

The election comes at a time when Egypt is faced with a struggling economy, unrest, uncertainty and a country deeply divided between Mursi’s  Islamist supporters and a liberal-led opposition.

The election comes after the adoption in December of an Islamist-backed constitution, condemned by the opposition and characterized by international rights groups as “inconsistent” with international laws and treaties.

Meanwhile, a number of opposition groups have announced plans to stage anti-government demonstrations on Friday.

According to Al-Ahram the demands of the protesters include holding President Mohamed Mursi and the Muslim Brotherhood to account for their crimes against Egyptians and the immediate release of detained political activists.

The early result of the poll is based on unofficial tallies that emerged on Sunday. Official results are not due to be released until the second round on December 22.

The Muslim Brotherhood said the group’s tallies showed that 56.5 per cent of voters had supported the constitution, while 43 per cent had voted ‘no’, according to results posted on their website ikhwanweb.com.

“The Freedom and Justice Party (FJP)’s central operations room followed the course of the vote on Egypt’s new Constitution Saturday. Our monitors noted a large turnout of voters. They further noted that the operation flowed smoothly, in a systematic manner, without incident, in the vast majority of polling stations in all governorates,” the Muslim Brotherhood said in a statement.

The vote this time is on a 63-page document that would be Egypt’s post-revolution constitution, and which has been the subject of a growing rift between Islamist forces and their opponents, who oppose the draft for not representing all Egyptians.

Menawhile, Egypt’s opposition cried fraud in Saturday’s first round the referendum on a new constitution, accusing President Mohamed Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood of rigging votes to adopt the Islamist-backed text, AFP reported.

The main opposition coalition, the National Salvation Front, had announced on Saturday night after polls closed that almost two thirds of voters had rejected the constitution drafted by an Islamist-dominated council, AP reported..

If the constitution is approved, Mursi hopes it will end a tumultuous transition almost two years after a popular uprising that pusted president Hosni Mubarak.

At least five people have been confirmed dead, according to doctors and state news sources. State-run MENA news agency reported 446 injured.

Egyptian state news agency said the military deployment around the palace was to secure the building.

The fighting erupted late Wednesday afternoon when thousands of Mursi’s supporters descended on an area near the presidential palace where some 300 of his opponents were staging a sit-in. Nine armoured troop carriers were also reported on the street outside the palace, according to Reuters.

Opposition protesters marched on the palace to pressure Mursi to revoke the draft constitution, which is scheduled for a referendum on December 15, and a controversial decree granting himself sweeping powers.

The president has defended his decree as necessary to prevent courts still full of judges appointed by Mubarak from interfering with a constitution necessary for Egypt’s democratic transition.

Mohamed ElBaradei, a leading opposition reform advocate, said late Wednesday that Mursi’s rule was “no different” than Mubarak’s.

“In fact, it is perhaps even worse,” he told a news conference after he accused the president’s supporters of a “vicious and deliberate” attack on peaceful demonstrators outside the palace, according to Al Ahram state new agency.

A presidential source said Morsi, silent in the last few days, was expected to make a statement later on Thursday, Reuters reported.

President Mohamed Mursi is set to visit China 27 August for a three-day visit in which he will meet with Chinese President Hiu Jinato,  state-run Al Ahram English website reported.

The visit comes in response to an invitation by the Chinese president. The two leaders plan to talk about key issues facing the Arab world, such as the Syrian crisis and the Palestinian issue, but also ways of boosting Chinese investment in Egypt.

After China, Egypt’s Islamist President Mohamed Mursi will visit Iran to attend the Non-Aligned Movement meetings on Aug. 30, Egyptian state news agency MENA said.

Egypt and Iran had had no diplomatic relations since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, with relations escalating in 1980 with Egypt’s recognition of Israel.

In June, Mursi denied giving an interview to Iran’s Fars news agency which had quoted him as expressing interest in restoring the long-severed ties between the countries. Mursi’s spokesperson said last week the interview never took place and that Mursi would file a lawsuit against the news agency, according to Reuters.

Iran has hailed the victory of Mursi, who resigned from the Muslim Brotherhood when he was elected in June, as an “Islamic Awakening”. Mursi, however, is struggling to assure Egypt’s Western allies cautious at the prospect of Islamist rule, and Gulf states that are deeply suspicious of Iranian influence, according to Zawya.

Egypt is the current head of the Non Aligned Movement, founded to advocate the causes of the developing world, is set to hand over to Iran in the Tehran meeting.

The decree states that Morsi decided to restore the elected parliament, and reconvene it in session to begin issuing legislation again, Al Jazeera reported.

Mursi’s unexpected decision basically canceled the military council’s decision in June to dissolve parliament following a Supreme Constitutional Court which ruled last year’s legislative polls unconstitutional.

The ruling prompted allegations that the court was of the military council, which has sought to limit the powers of the rising Muslim Brotherhood.

The Muslim Brotherhood’s political party which won half of the seats of the assembly argued that the court’s decision was wrong and the SCAF had no legal right to dissolve parliament.

Mohammed Mursi is still member of the Muslim brotherhood, even though he stepped down from a leadership position.

Egypt’s Supreme Council for the Armed Forces (SCAF) held an “emergency meeting” late Sunday to discuss Mursi’s decision, according to SCAF sources quoted by MENA news agency. 

Meanwhile, the court said it too would meet on Monday to evaluate the decree.

Mursi’s decree also called for new parliamentary elections to be held within 60 days of the ratification of a new constitution for the country.

Meanehile, a constitutional assembly selected by the previous parliament has been formed and has begun drafting the constitution.

According to experts the surprising move by Mursi will lead to a conflict with the ruling generals who officially handed power to him on June 30.

According to a report in Egypt’s state news agency quoting Mursi’s spokesman, Ahmadinejad congratulated Mursi on his recent win in Egypt’s presidential election. He also invited Morsi to attend a summit of the Non-Aligned Movement which will be held in Tehran on August 29.

The report did not specify whether Mursi had accepted Ahmadinejad’s invitation.

Egypt and Iran had had no diplomatic relations since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, with relations escalating in 1980 with Egypt’s recognition of Israel.

The call appeared to be the first contact between the two leaders since Mursi was sworn in as president of Egypt.  Iran has previously hailed Mursi’s victory over former ex prime minister under ousted Mubarak, Ahmed Shafiq, in Egypt’s first free presidential election as a “splendid vision of democracy” that marked the country’s “Islamic Awakening.”

Mursi has denied giving an interview to Iran’s Fars news agency which had quoted him as expressing interest in restoring the long-severed ties between the countries. Mursi’s spokesperson said last week the interview never took place and that Mursi would file a lawsuit against the news agency, according to Reuters.

The Israeli daily Haaretz reported on Sunday morning that the letter, “stressed Israel’s desire to continue cooperation and to strengthen the peace,” an Israeli source said on condition of anonymity.

The letter “congratulated Mursi on his election, offered to cooperate with the new government in Cairo and expressed… hope that both parties will observe the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty.”

Haaretz said Israeli officials, after holding talks with Washington had decided to put off attempts to organize a phone call between Mursi and Netanyahu, but said the Israeli leader had dispatched an envoy for meetings with Egyptian security officials.

However, according to Maan news agency the Egyptian President Mohammed Mursi has refused to talk with the Prime Minister of Israel over the phone and refused to meet him, despite the letter sent congratulating him on his election.

Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty that ended 30 years of conflict in 1979.

 Israel has watched cautiously as the Muslim Brotherhood has gained increasing influence in Egypt.

Mursi began his first full day in office on Sunday after being sworn in as the country’s first democratically elected civilian president on Saturday, Mursi formally received a transfer of power and pledge of support from the military.

Internationally, Mursi said on Saturday that Egypt would back the Palestinians.

 “I announce from here that Egypt, its people and presidential institution stand with the Palestinian people until they regain all their rights,” he said.

Last weekend, Egypt held the second round of its presidential election, a key element of the transition to greater democracy that began in January 2011 when a popular uprising overthrew the long-standing regime of Hosni Mubarak.

Egyptian electoral authorities are scheduled to announce the official results of the run-off poll on Thursday. The run-off pitted Mohammed Mursi, representing the Muslim Brotherhood, against ex-prime minister Ahmed Shafiq.

“The Secretary-General continues to follow events in Egypt closely,” the Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Oscar Fernandez-Taranco, told the Security Council, as he briefed the 15-member body on the latest developments in the Middle East. “He looks forward to the early handover of full authority to a civilian government.”

Ban “underscores his concern that the country’s transition should meet the legitimate aspirations of the Egyptian people and of the international community for the establishment of strong, representative, democratic institutions and for the popular will to be respected – both in the elections and in the drafting of a new Constitution,” Fernandez-Taranco added.

In addition to Egypt, the popular uprisings that began last year resulted in the toppling of long-standing regimes in Tunisia, Libya and Yemen, and led to the violence and humanitarian suffering that continues in Syria.