The vote is staggered, with polling in half of Egypt’s governorates set to start Sunday.
Advertisement
None of the key liberal figures that helped fuel the 2011 uprising, like Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei or former presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabahi, are running in the current elections.
Since Morsi’s overthrow, Egyptian authorities have launched a harsh crackdown on dissent, killing hundreds of supporters of Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood group. Candidates have been holding rallies and their election songs have been blasting across the streets in megaphones for the past 18 days. Interior Ministry spokesman Abu Bakr Abdel-Karim says they will be joined by 180,000 police.
But Carnegie Center researcher Nathan Brown said parliament’s “ability to use them might be close to zero if the elections result in the fractured and non-ideological parliament so widely expected”.
Egyptians living overseas vote on Saturday.
Formed in 1928, the body was tolerated despite being officially banned during Mubarak’s three-decade rule.
“It’s not the first time the Brotherhood is going through such an experience”, he added, referring to the widespread repression the movement experienced under President Gamal Abdel Nasser following an assassination attempt in 1954.
The Brotherhood has now been blacklisted as a “terrorist organisation” and its members banned from contesting elections.
“There is a change in the thinking of Egyptian voters given the current political situation”, said Al-Nur vice president Ashraf Thabet.
Advertisement
“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.
