Egypt sets October election date, after three years without parliament

Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo, April 23, 2015. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt will hold a long-awaited parliamentary election, starting on Oct. 18-19, the election commission said on Sunday, the final step in a process to bring back democracy that critics say has been tainted by widespread repression.

Egypt has been without a parliament since June 2012 when a court dissolved the democratically elected main chamber, dominated by the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood, reversing a major accomplishment of the 2011 uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak.