Egyptian parliamentary election, 2015
Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Egyptian parliamentary elections to the House of Representatives were held in two phases, from 17 October to 2 December 2015.[1] The elected parliament will be entrusted with the task of reviewing the laws that were passed while a parliament was not in session.[2]
In preparation for the election, security was tightened across the country with at least 185,000 troops supporting police, president Sisi made a televised appeal for Egyptians to vote, and in mid-October, public sector employees were given half a day's holiday to encourage them to take part. The strikingly low turnout of around 10 %, with "many angry at the government and its policies", was widely regarded as a set-back for the regime and a success for calls to boycotts from oppositional movements.[3]
Contents
Background
The parliament is made up of 596 seats, with 448 seats elected through the individual candidacy system, 120 elected through winner-take-all party lists (with quotas for youth, women, Christians, and workers) and 28 selected by the president.[4] The government commission that set the rules for the 2015 parliamentary elections drastically reduced the number of "list seats" (candidates who shared party affiliations or other alliances, and whose ranks had to include people under the age of thirty-five, women, Christians, and other traditionally underrepresented groups) from the 2011 election."[5]
Almost 16,000 officials kept an eye on polling places during the election.[6]
Procedure
First phase: Upper Egypt & West Delta
In the first phase, elections will be 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 takes place on 18 to 19 October for Egyptian residents, while it took place on 17 to 18 October for Egyptian expatriates. Runoffs will be held on 27 to 28 October for Egyptians residents, and on 26 to 27 October for Egyptian expatriates.[7]
Nominations started on 1 September,[1] and lasted until 12 September (with the exception of the Qena and Qoss districts, which were extended until 15 September),[8] though candidates had until 15 September to submit the necessary medical tests.[9] Campaigning for the first phase started on 29 September[10] and ended on 15 October.[11]
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.[7]
Campaigning started on 2 November and ended on 20 November 2015.[12]
Candidates
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.[13] 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.[7]
A total of 7 electoral lists are contesting the 120 fixed-list seats available in the four regional constituencies:
| Name of the list | 1st phase constituency | 2nd phase constituency | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| North, Center & South Upper Egypt Division Constituency (45 seats) |
West Delta Division Constituency (15 seats) |
Cairo, South & Center Delta Division Constituency (45 seats) |
East Delta Division Constituency (15 seats) |
|
| For the Love of Egypt (Fi Hob Misr) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Egypt coalition | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Call of Egypt (Nidaa Misr) | Yes | No | No | No |
| Independent National Reawakening Bloc (al-Sahwa al-Wataneya) | Yes | No | No | No |
| Al-Nour Party | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Knights of Egypt (Forsan Misr) | No | Yes | No | No |
| Republican Alliance for Social Forces | No | No | Yes | No |
| Source: Mada Masr[14] | ||||
In the first phase, 2,573 individual candidates are contesting 226 individual seats. Many parties are fielding individual candidates both on joint electoral lists and contesting the list-based seats.[7]
Results
.svg)
First phase
| Party | Ideology | Candidates | Run-off candidates |
% Reaching runoff | Votes | Vote % | Seats | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free Egyptians Party | Liberal Democracy | 111 | 64 | 56.63 | 1,009,083 | 41 | ||
| Nation's Future Party | Populism | 89 | 64 | 51.68 | 702,965 | 26 | ||
| Al-Nour Party | Salafi Islamist | 91 | 23 | 25.27 | 494,042 | 8 | ||
| New Wafd Party | National Liberalism | 77 | 21 | 27.27 | 392,138 | 16 | ||
| Republican People's Party | Populism | 42 | 14 | 33.33 | 198,822 | 11 | ||
| Democratic Peace Party | Nationalism | 57 | 8 | 14.03 | 155,847 | 1 | ||
| Conference Party | National Liberalism | 53 | 7 | 13.20 | 105,975 | 5 | ||
| Protectors of the Homeland Party | Populism | 51 | 5 | 9.80 | 89,875 | 7 | ||
| Freedom Party | Liberalism | 6 | 3 | 50.00 | 68,926 | 1 | ||
| Egyptian Social Democratic Party | Social Liberalism | 41 | 5 | 12.19 | 56,922 | 3 | ||
| Egyptian Patriotic Movement | Secularism | 60 | 4 | 6.66 | 45,014 | 1 | ||
| My Homeland Egypt Party | Populism | 20 | 3 | 15.00 | 29,971 | 1 | ||
| Modern Egypt Party | Left-wing politics | 25 | 2 | 8.00 | 25,993 | 2 | ||
| Conservative | Conservatism | 14 | 1 | 4.28 | 23,042 | 1 | ||
| Free Egyptian Building Party | 11 | 1 | 9.09 | 1 | ||||
| Leader Party | 9 | 1 | 11.11 | 0 | ||||
| Other/Independents | ---- | |||||||
| Total |
The results for expatriate voting during the first phase were announced on 20 October 2015.[17]
| Results for expatriate voting during the first round | |
|---|---|
| Coalitions | Votes |
| For the Love of Egypt | 15,529 |
| Call of Egypt | 3,076 |
| Egypt | 2,969 |
| Independent National Reawakening Bloc | 1,403 |
| Party | Ideology | Votes | Vote % | FPTP Seats | List Seats | Total Seats | Component Parties | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free Egyptians Party | Liberalism, Secularism | 57 | 8 | 65 | |||||
| Nation's Future Party | Populism | 43 | 10 | 53 | |||||
| New Wafd Party | Egyptian nationalism, National Liberalism | 27 | 8 | 36 | 1 appointed member | ||||
| Homeland Defenders Party | Populism | 10 | 8 | 18 | |||||
| Republican People's Party | Liberalism, Populism | 13 | 0 | 13 | |||||
| Conference Party | Big tent, Liberalism | 8 | 4 | 12 | |||||
| Al-Nour Party | Islamism, Salafism | 11 | 0 | 11 | |||||
| Conservative Party | Conservative Liberalism | 1 | 5 | 6 | |||||
| Democratic Peace Party | Liberal Democracy, Civic Nationalism | 5 | 0 | 5 | |||||
| Egyptian Social Democratic Party | Social Democracy, Social Liberalism | 4 | 0 | 4 | |||||
| Egyptian National Movement Party | Secularism | 4 | 0 | 4 | |||||
| Modern Egypt Party | Leftism | 4 | 0 | 4 | |||||
| Freedom Party | Big tent, Liberalism | 3 | 0 | 3 | |||||
| Reform and Development Party | Liberalism | 3 | 0 | 3 | |||||
| My Homeland Egypt Party | Populism | 3 | 0 | 3 | |||||
| Revolutionary Guards Party | Nationalism, Liberalism | 3 | 0 | 3 | |||||
| National Progressive Unionist Party | Left-wing Nationalism, Democratic Socialism | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 appointed member | ||||
| Free Egyptian Building Party | Islamism | 1 | 0 | 1 | |||||
| Nasserist Party | Arab Nationalism, Arab Socialism | 1 | 0 | 1 | |||||
| Independents | Independents | - | - | 251 | 74 | 351 | 28 Appointed members | ||
| Total elected | elected MPs | 0 | 100.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| Appointees | non-elected MPs | - | - | - | - | 0 | |||
| Total | MPs | - | - | - | - | 0 |
Boycotts
A number of parties boycotted the election, claiming that the process was unfair. These included the following:
- Bread and Freedom Party[18]
- Building and Development Party[19]
- Civil Democratic Current (withdrew from the election for lack of funds)[20]
- Freedom Egypt Party[18]
- Homeland Party[21]
- National Conciliation Party (withdrew from the election)[22]
- Reawakening of Egypt (will not participate in the election)[23]
- Revolutionary Socialists[24]
- Social Justice Coalition (chose not to participate in the election)[25]
- Strong Egypt Party[18]
- Al-Wasat Party[26]
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[6]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
