Egyptians vote in 2nd stage of election
CAIRO — Egyptians began voting Saturday in the second and final stage of the country’s parliamentary elections, after a relatively low turnout in the first round that embarrassed the government of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.
Polling centers opened at 9 a.m. in 13 of Egypt’s 27 provinces, including the capital Cairo and the restive northern part of the Sinai Peninsula. El-Sissi cast his ballot early Saturday in Cairo’s Heliopolis district, according to his office. More than 31 million people are eligible to vote in this stage.
Critics say the 596-seat legislature will largely resemble the previous one, which was little more than a rubber stamp for the president’s policies, leaving the former military general with almost unchecked powers.
“We may observe some real competitions among candidates in several districts, however, this competition has nothing to do with the broad idea of free and fair elections, it is a competition only allowed among loyal individuals,”
said Ahmed Abd Rabou, a visiting assistant professor at the Josef Korbel School of International StudiesUniversity of Denver who specializes in Egypt.
The government deployed thousands of police and troops to safeguard the two-day vote. Precautionary measures were also taken to stem the spread of coronavirus pandemic, amid warnings by the government about a second wave of the pandemic. Egypt has shown a slight increase in daily confirmed cases in the past two weeks.
A total of 568 seats in
the lower chamber are up for grabs in the election, with half the seats reserved for candidates running as individuals. The other 50% of seats in the House of Representatives are for over 1,100 candidates running on four party lists.
The president will name 28 seats, or 5%, bringing the total number of seats in the lower chamber to 596.
A quota of 25% of the seats are reserved for women, according to constitutional amendments approved in a national referendum last year.