Thirteen of Egypt’s 27 governorates began a second round of elections on Saturday to elect members of the lower house of parliament. A runoff election will be held a few weeks later to determine the final winner.
Egyptian media showed Egyptians voting Saturday morning at polling stations in half of Egypt’s regions. These areas did not participate in the round of voting held last month. Polling stations broadcast announcements, staff welcomed voters, and authorities arranged for tight security measures as well as a new type of coronavirus protection.
Egyptian state-run television showed President Sisi voting at a polling station on the outskirts of Cairo, not far from the presidential palace. The president urged Egyptians “to exercise their civic duty to vote. Egyptian security forces were deployed at full strength to ensure the vote went off without a hitch.
Egyptian National Elections Commission (NEC) Chairman Ibrahim told reporters that the judiciary supervised the opening of 9,468 polling stations in Saturday’s second phase of parliamentary elections. He went on to say that polling stations “were disinfected to prevent the spread of the disease.
He said the election commission hired outside teams through a contract tender to disinfect the polling stations at the beginning and end of voting on Saturday and Sunday.
President Sisi’s National Future party made a strong showing in the first phase of head-to-head voting a few weeks ago. Egypt’s semi-official Al-Ahram newspaper reported a voter turnout of 28.06% of the nearly 31 million eligible voters in the first round of voting.
Sixty-three million Egyptians were eligible to vote in both rounds of the election. Voters were fined $30 for not voting. However, such fines are rarely applied.
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