2015 Egyptian parliamentary election

Background

Various alliances had been formed, including the Free Nation Coalition and the Nation Alliance, ahead of anticipated parliamentary elections that would have been held by the Mohamed Morsi government. However, Morsi was overthrown in a July 2013 coup d'etat.

Electoral system

The parliament is made up of 596 seats, with 448 seats elected through the single member districts, 120 elected through party bloc vote in which party list should win 50%+ votes to win all seats however if no list achieved the threshold, a second round held between top two parties and the list with the most votes wins. Party list contain quotas for youth, women, Christians, and workers. Single member districts consists of 1-member district, 2-member districts, 3-member district and 4-member districts, winner should win 50%+ of the votes, if no one achieved the threshold a second round held between top candidates (candidates number should be the double of contested seat number) and the candidate with the most votes wins. In addition, 28 are selected by the president. The government commission that set the rules for the 2015 parliamentary elections "drastically reduced the number of list seats".

Procedure

First phase: Upper Egypt & West Delta

In the first phase, elections were held from 17 to 28 October 2015 in the fourteen governorates of the Upper Egypt and West Delta regions, namely the governorates of Giza, Fayoum, Beni Suef, Minya, Asyut, New Valley, Sohag, Qena, Luxor, Aswan, Red Sea, Alexandria, Beheira, and Matruh.

For these governorates, the first round of elections took place on 18 to 19 October for Egyptian residents, while it took place on 17 to 18 October for Egyptian expatriates. Runoffs were held on 27 to 28 October for Egyptians residents, and on 26 to 27 October for Egyptian expatriates.

Nominations started on 1 September, though candidates had until 15 September to submit the necessary medical tests. Campaigning for the first phase started on 29 September and ended on 15 October.

Second phase: Central and East Delta

In the second phase, elections took place from 21 November to 2 December 2015 in the remaining nine governorates of the Central Delta and East Delta regions, namely the governorates of Cairo, Qalyubia, Dakahlia, Monufia, Gharbia, Kafr el-Sheikh, Sharqia, Damietta, Port Said, Ismailia, Suez, North Sinai, and South Sinai.

For these governorates, the first round of elections took place on 22 to 23 November for Egyptian residents and 21 to 22 November for Egyptian expatriates. Runoffs were held on 1 to 2 December for Egyptian residents, and on 30 November to 1 December for Egyptian expatriates.

Campaigning started on 2 November and ended on 20 November 2015.

Parties

Withdrawn

The National Alliance had formed with the support of former prime minister Kamal Ganzouri, but the alliance withdrew from the election in February 2015. Another list, called the Reawakening of Egypt, withdrew from the race in September.

Contesting

On 16 September, the High Elections Committee announced the initial list of accepted candidates. While nine electoral lists were accepted, five more lists were rejected, including two of the three lists of the Egypt coalition (Egyptian Front & Independent Current Coalition) as well as the lists of Upper Egypt's Voice, Call of Egypt and Knights of Egypt. After appealing to court, all rejected lists but the one by Upper Egypt's Voice were admitted. The final list of candidates for the first phase was announced on 28 September.

A total of seven electoral lists contested the 120 fixed-list seats available in the four regional constituencies:

In the first phase, 2,573 individual candidates contested in 226 individual seats. Many parties are fielding individual candidates both on joint electoral lists and contesting the list-based seats.

Boycotts

A number of parties boycotted the election, claiming that the process was unfair. These included the following:

• Bread and Freedom Party
• Building and Development Party
• Civil Democratic Current (withdrew from the election for lack of funds)
• Freedom Egypt Party
• Homeland Party
• National Conciliation Party (withdrew from the election)
• Reawakening of Egypt (will not participate in the election)
• Revolutionary Socialists
• Social Justice Coalition (chose not to participate in the election)
• Strong Egypt Party
• Al-Wasat Party

Rules for media coverage of elections by Supreme Electoral Commission

• Maintain objectivity and refrain from inserting personal views in news
• Deliver accurate information
• Refrain from using misleading titles or pictures unrelated to content
• Refrain from using vague designations
• It is strictly forbidden to ask voters who they will vote for
• It is forbidden to conduct polls and surveys in front of polling stations
• It is forbidden to phrase questions in a way that encourages a particular response
• Reporters must respect the right of reply

Results

First phase

!colspan=2|Party !Ideology !Candidates !Run-off candidates !% Reaching runoff !Votes !Seats |- style="text-align:right;" | 111 | 64 | 56.63 | 1,009,083 | 41 |- style="text-align:right;" | 89 | 64 | 51.68 | 702,965 | 26 |- style="text-align:right;" | 91 | 23 | 25.27 | 494,042 | 8 |- style="text-align:right;" | 77 | 21 | 27.27 | 392,138 | 16 |- style="text-align:right;" | 42 | 14 | 33.33 | 198,822 | 11 |- style="text-align:right;" | 57 | 8 | 14.03 | 155,847 | 1 |- style="text-align:right;" | 53 | 7 | 13.20 | 105,975 | 5 |- style="text-align:right;" | 51 | 5 | 9.80 | 89,875 | 7 |- style="text-align:right;" | 6 | 3 | 50.00 | 68,926 | 1 |- style="text-align:right;" | 41 | 5 | 12.19 | 56,922 | 3 |- style="text-align:right;" | 60 | 4 | 6.66 | 45,014 | 1 |- style="text-align:right;" | 20 | 3 | 15.00 | 29,971 | 1 |- style="text-align:right;" | 25 | 2 | 8.00 | 25,993 | 2 |- style="text-align:right;" | 14 | 1 | 4.28 | 23,042 | 1 |- style="text-align:right;" | 11 | 1 | 9.09 | | 1 |- style="text-align:right;" | 9 | 1 | 11.11 | | 0 |- style="text-align:right;" | | | | | |- class="sortbottom" | style="background-color:#E9E9E9" | align="right" | | | | | |}

Expatriates

The results for expatriate voting during the first phase were announced on 20 October 2015.

References

References

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