CAIRO: Egypt announced that the nation’s long-delayed Parliament elections will start in March and that the voting will be staggered over seven weeks, the final step in a political roadmap put in place by the military.

The chief of the Supreme Election Committee, Ayman Abbas, said the voting will take place in phases in Egypt’s 27 provinces and among Egyptians living abroad.

Egypt has been mired in turmoil since the 2011 uprising that ousted longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak. The country has been without a legislature for more than two years, after its last elected house was dissolved by a 2012 court ruling. Legislative powers have lately resided in the hands of new President Abdel-Fattah El-Sissi, elected in June 2014. The previous house was controlled by members of the Muslim Brotherhood who came to power in the country’s first democratically held vote following Mubarak’s toppling. But a court dissolved the Islamist-dominated chamber on a technicality, days before Muhammad Mursi was elected president in 2012.

The crisis culminated in July 2013, when the military stepped in, ousting Mursi in the face of popular protests against his rule. Since then, the military-backed authorities have cracked down on Mursi’s supporters. Mursi and other leaders are all incarcerated and facing trials. The Brotherhood — once Egypt’s most powerful political organization — has been declared a terrorist group and cannot run in the elections.

In related developments, an Egyptian court said it will announce a verdict on April 21 in one of the trials of Mursi.

If found guilty, Mursi could face the death penalty in that case. He also faces two other ongoing cases and a set of charges that have yet to be brought to trial.

In announcing the elections, Abbas, the head of Supreme Elections Committee, said the first phase of balloting will be held in 14 provinces over three days, starting March 21 for Egyptians from those provinces living abroad. Voters in Egypt in the same provinces are to cast ballots on March 22 and 23.

Reruns are due a week later. Voting in the remaining 13 provinces will begin on April 25 for Egyptians abroad while voters in Egypt will go to the polls on April 26 and 27.