Concrete preparations were supposed to have begun in late 2015.[4] In March 2016 Prime Minister Sherif Ismail announced that his government aimed to hold local elections during the first quarter of 2017.[5] This was soon contradicted by a proclamation by President el-Sisi that he had ordered local elections to be held by the end of 2016.[6] Members of the majority 'Support Egypt' bloc in parliament, to the contrary, reported that local elections would be held in the second half of 2017.[7] The Egyptian Council of Localities pointed to this lack of clarity on the date, as well as the absence of a local electoral law to implement the Constitution's provisions, as obstacles to actually holding the elections.[8] By mid-2017 parliament decided to postpone the election until late 2018 or early 2019.[9]