Summary⎙ Print Egypt’s parliamentary elections start October 19, with a focus on individual candidacies as opposed to those sponsored by political parties. Egypt’s long-awaited parliamentary election will be conducted in two stages covering the country’s 27 provinces. A second round of the vote will be held on Nov. 22-23 and for expatriates on Nov. 21-22.
Advertisement
Voters in 14 of Egypt’s 27 governorates, including the country’s second biggest city Alexandria, will cast their ballots on Sunday and Monday, marking the first phase of the long-delayed elections. Arabic reads, “Ahmed Fekry”.
Egyptian voters will head to polling stations on Sunday to elect a new parliament, the first since the military ousted former Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in 2013. Also running is Abdel-Raheem Ali, who has used his TV show to air recordings of romantic or personal telephone conversations by rights activists with the intention of casting them as morally loose or agents paid by foreign powers.
Many Egyptians have reposted the Sisi’s Mickey Mouse photograph, expressing their outrage over the sentence.
Egypt has been without a parliament since it was dissolved by a court ruling in 2012.
The six-week poll is likely to result in a “tamed” parliament comprising pro-Sisi coalitions and independents, scattered blocs of political parties, and Mubarak-era figures, all with little true influence.
“There are no big issues being discussed because that’s not the nature of it…it’s not an election of ideas”, said Khaled Dawoud, a prominent member of the center-left Dostour party.
The election, moreover, will be held amid a climate of fear not seen in decades and a tightly controlled public sphere.
“We will not achieve anything positive in this election as we are heading towards an authoritarian regime”, said Zyad El-Elaimy, ex-MP with the Social Democratic Party fielding 77 candidates.
Unlike previous elections, El Bedewy said, voting via mail shall not be accepted due to legal and procedural problems.
The 60-year-old El-Sisi has spoken vaguely of his democratic convictions, preferring instead to focus in his public comments on what he sees as the vital need for Egyptians to unite in the face of security and economic challenges.
He can secure those aims if he wins a two-thirds majority in parliament.
With the Muslim Brotherhood – which had been a potent force – banned from running and with thousands of its leaders and members jailed, the only serious potential opposition comes from the politically isolated al-Nour Party and the Democratic Current list, the latter populated with ageing leftist figures such as the former presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabahi.
Advertisement
Meanwhile, Sisi supporters are widely expected to sweep the parliamentary elections.
