Runoffs set for 5 seats in Egyptian Senate elections with 17% voter turnout: National Election Authority

CAIRO/ISTANBUL

Egypt’s National Election Authority announced the results Tuesday of the first round of Senate elections -- the country’s second parliamentary chamber.

Authority head Hazem Badawy declared victory for the National Unified List in the list-based system and 95 candidates in the individual system.

Under the individual system, a winning candidate must secure 50% plus one of valid votes, according to Egypt’s official news agency.

The National Unified List won after “exceeding the legal threshold for victory as the sole list, set at 5% of the total eligible voters.”

Badawy said at a news conference in Cairo that the number of registered voters stood at 69,330,318, of whom 11,837,882 cast ballots inside and outside the country, for a turnout of 17.1%.

He added that valid votes totaled 11,321,070, representing 95.63% of total ballots, while invalid votes amounted to 516,818, or 4.37%.

The Election Authority decided to hold a runoff abroad at Egypt’s diplomatic missions on Aug. 25 -26, followed by domestic runoffs on Aug. 27 - 28 in certain constituencies.

The Senate has a five-year term. Formerly known as the Shura Council, it was abolished in the 2014 constitutional amendments, then reinstated in 2019 under its current name.

This is the second Senate election since reinstatement, following the first in 2020, during President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s tenure, which began in 2014.

Voting for Senate members took place about a week ago under the supervision of judicial authorities.

The chamber has 300 members: one-third appointed by the president and two-thirds elected.

In the individual system, 424 candidates, 183 independents and 241 from political parties, competed for 100 seats.

In the list system, only the National Unified List contested all four nationwide constituencies for 100 seats, winning by securing more than 5% of participating voters.

The final results will be announced and published in the official gazette on Sept. 4, in line with the election timetable.