Egypt’s parliamentary elections, Setting record straight

On Sunday, January 10, Egypt’s new Parliament was sworn in, completing the final phase of the political “Road Map” envisioned by representatives of various Egyptian political currents.

This is an important milestone for Egypt, after a period of political turmoil, and one that has been welcomed by the vast majority of Egypt’s international partners, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zaid in a blog posted on the Ministry's website Friday.

"Before discussing various reactions to the elections and their results, let us lay out a number of facts about the Egyptian electoral process in order to set the record straight," Abu Zaid said.

1- Egypt’s electoral map: Facts and figures

Egypt’s new electoral system combines two different components of majoritarian electoral systems: political parties competing for seats under winner-takes-all party lists (120 seats) and individual candidates competing for seats (448 seats). An additional 28 seats (5% of the total seats in Parliament) are appointed by the President. This sums up to a total of 596 seats.

This new electoral system was put in place under Egypt’s new Constitution, adopted by popular referendum in 2014, and labelled by most commentators as the most liberal in Egypt’s history. This was the first step in Egypt’s political “Road Map”, after mass protests removed the Brotherhood from power on June 30, 2013.

The benefits of combining these two electoral systems are multiple. The individual system ensures that 75% of Members of Parliament (MPs) have the support of at least 50% of the electorate.

The party list system, on the other hand, encourages strong party organisation in a country where political parties have been weak and underdeveloped.

Simultaneously, under article 244 of Egypt’s Constitution, under the party list component there are seats reserved for women, Christians, farmers and workers, youth (aged 25 to 35 years), persons with disabilities, and expatriates.

This provides more opportunities for women and other groups that did not traditionally gain sufficient representation in Egypt’s parliament.

The results of the elections are positive on a number of levels. Almost half the MPs entering parliament under party lists are women. Although women were underrepresented as individual candidates, in total they comprise almost 15 % of Parliament, which is unprecedented in Egypt’s history. At 36 MPs, the number of Christians in Parliament is also unparalleled.

In total, more than 5,400 individual candidates contested the elections. In addition, 44 political parties, mostly joining forces under the banner of 7 electoral lists, competed for the 120 party-list seats. This amounts to an additional 600 party-based candidates, bringing the total number of candidates to over 6,000.

The 7 electoral lists included the “For the Love of Egypt” coalition (comprising ten separate political parties), the “Republican Alliance of Social Forces”, the “Egypt List” (an alliance between the Egyptian Front and Independence Current), the Islamist “Salafist Al Nour Party” (which did not join any alliance) and the “Democratic Current” led by former Presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabbahi.

Source: MENA