Egypt to release list of candidates for House of Representatives elections
Egypt’s National Elections Authority will today announce the final approved list of candidates to contest the late October parliamentary elections for 568 of the 596 lower house seats.
Examination committees in 29 courts across Egypt vetted candidates against criteria designed to ban parties based on religion. These criteria were approved via constitutional referenda after the 2013 military overthrow of the late Mohammad Morsi’s one-year government—the last elected in free and fair elections.
Parties loyal to authoritarian President Abdul Fattah Al-Sisi are expected to gain the lion’s share of the votes. However, due to a combination of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, voter apathy and no real opposition, voter turnout is likely to be extremely low. In the August senate elections, only 5% of registered voters cast their ballots, although lack of awareness of the recently established senate likely contributed.
Regardless, expect increasing unrest in the immediate to medium-term, due to sporadic but growing protests against Al-Sisi’s handling of declining social and economic conditions, exacerbated by the pandemic. Two million Egyptians have become newly unemployed with the jobless figures jumping from 7.7% to 9.6% this year. This will likely translate into the Al-Sisi’s administration becoming more assertive, sacking ministers and officials to appease protesters but also cracking down on dissent.
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