Egyptians resumed voting, on Sunday, on the second and last day in the first phase of House of Representatives elections. Polling stations opened their doors at 9:00 for voters to cast their ballots.
According to the National Elections Authority (NEA), the voting process proceeded smoothly on Sunday at the 10,240 sub-committees, adding that no reports of violations or disruptions to the electoral process occurred.
The first phase of the voting process took place on Saturday and Sunday, with the results to be announced on 15 November. The first phase of voting took place in the governorates of Giza, Fayoum, Beni Suef, Minya, Assiut, New Valley, Sohag, Qena, Luxor, Aswan, Red Sea, Alexandria, Beheira, and Matrouh.
Meanwhile, NEA Chairperson Lashin Ibrahim announced that a special hotline can be contacted for citizens to lodge complaints or ask questions about the electoral process. The hotline can be contacted on 19826.
Ibrahim confirmed that the committees started to receive the voters at 9 am, amid strict precautionary measures to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).
Electoral committees in the Mohandessin district of Giza witnessed a good voter turnout, on Sunday, particularly among the elderly and women. A number of special needs voters flocked to committees in the Mansheyet El-Bakry district to cast their votes.
Several officials continued voting on the second day, with Cairo University President Mohamed Othman El-Khosht casting his ballot at a polling station in Mohandessin. He stressed the need for citizens to actively participate in the country’s elections to back democracy.
El-Khosht urged the university’s teaching staff, workers, and students to participate in the voting process, adding that his university remains unbiased towards candidates.
Egypt has a total of 63 million eligible voters out of a population of just over 100 million. Of this number, a total of nearly 33 million were eligible to vote in the first phase of House of Representative elections.
The Ministry of Local Development said that it has been monitoring the electoral process, in coordination with the Ministry of Health, in order to apply all preventive measures at electoral committees against the coronavirus.
The ministry also added that the electoral committees have witnessed a large turnout among youth voters since polling stations opened on Saturday.
In Alexandria, Agamy education administration staff organised a mass rally for teachers, administrators and a number of parents, calling upon citizens to participate in the electoral process. It added that it remained unbiased towards any particular candidate.
The second phase of voting will start on 7 and 8 November, while the run offs will be held on 7 and 8 December.
About 4,006 individual candidates and eight coalition lists are competing for 568 seats in this election, while 28 seats will be named by the President, bringing the total number of seats in the House of Representatives to 596.
