CAIRO: While Islamists dominated the polls in Suez, they faced competition from remnants of the old regime (commonly called felool) in Ismailia in the run-offs of the parliamentary elections.
In Suez, Abbas Abdel Aziz, a Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) candidate, the Muslim Brotherhood’s (MB) political arm, competed against Mohamed Adel of the Salafi Al-Nour Party over the professional seat.
Adel had a small lead over Abdel Aziz in the second round, winning 60,625 votes, leaving Abdel Aziz with 46,417 votes.
Al-Tagammu Party, member of the more liberal Egyptian Bloc, is vying for the workers seat with its candidate and former MP Abdel-Hamid Kamal, against Al-Nour Party’s candidate, Hani Nour El-Din. Kamal won a seat in the 2010 parliamentary elections against members of the fallen National Democratic Party (NDP).
Nour El-Din garnered the highest number of votes in the second round of elections, winning 100,758 votes, while Kamal garnered 45,254 votes.
In Ismailia, Mohamed Hisham El-Soly is facing off with Mohamed Ghannam, former member of the fallen NDP, for the professional seat. While Mohamed Hawwary of Al-Nour Party competed against Eissa Zein El-Abedine, also member of the disbanded NDP for the workers seat.
The Islamists had a huge lead over remnants of the former regime as El-Soly garnered 191,905 votes, as oppose to Ghannam’s 29,381 votes, according to Ikhwan Online. Hawwary won 206,877 votes, as El-Abedine gained merely 27,638 votes.
The FJP-led Democratic Alliance and Al-Nour Party took the lead in both governorates in the party lists as well.
In Suez, Al-Nour Party came in first place snatching two seats after garnering 127,836 votes, while the FJP came in second place, winning 75,266 votes equivalent to one seat, according to Ikhwan Online.
The Egyptian Bloc also won one seat coming in third place, after winning 23,478 votes.
In Ismailia, the FJP came in first place winning 183,859 votes, while Al-Nour came in second place with 132,992. The liberal Al-Wafd party came in third place garnering 53,637 votes and the liberal Egyptian Bloc came in fourth place with 31,998.
Both governorates each have six seats up for grabs in the People’s Assembly, including four allocated for the party list and two for the independent candidates.
In Ismailia, a total of 164 candidates competed over the individual seats while 17 party lists battled over the other four in the second round of elections, which took place on Dec. 14-15.
In Suez, a total of 110 candidates competed over the individual seats, and 12 lists competed over the governorate’s four seats.
The Supreme Electoral Commission’s (SEC) website has not posted official results for the party lists for the second round of elections.
The final results for the party lists in all 27 governorates will be announced after the third stage of elections slated for Jan. 3.
Each party must earn at least half percent of the valid votes nationwide in order to win any seats in the new parliament.
