CAIRO– Polling stations across Egypt opened at 9am on Tuesday for the second and final day of voting in the second phase of parliamentary elections, held under the supervision of judges from the country’s judicial bodies and monitored by domestic and international civil society groups and media outlets.
Committee heads also examined ballot boxes and the coded plastic seals affixed to them, confirming that none had been tampered with. They verified seal codes against those recorded in official logs signed and stamped on Monday, before notifying the main electoral committees and declaring voting open until 9 p.m.
Police forces were deployed inside and around polling stations to secure the premises and ensure voters could cast their ballots in a calm and orderly environment.
Vote counting is scheduled to begin inside each sub-committee once polls close. Each station will announce a detailed tally, including the number of registered voters, turnout over both days, valid and invalid ballots, and the votes obtained by each candidate and electoral list. The results will be recorded in official committee reports and forwarded to the general committees and follow-up bodies, which will then transmit them to the National Election Authority.
The second phase covers 13 governorates: Cairo, Qalyubia, Daqahliyah, Monufia, Gharbia, Kafr El-Sheikh, Sharqia, Damietta, Port Said, Ismailia, Suez, North Sinai and South Sinai.
A total of 34,611,991 citizens are eligible to vote across 73 constituencies and 5,287 sub-polling stations. Some 1,316 candidates are competing for 141 individual seats, in addition to one list in the East Delta sector and another in the Cairo, South and Central Delta sector for the list-based seats.
The vote is being monitored by missions from several international organizations, including the Arab League, the African Union, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the Arab Organization for Electoral Management Bodies (ArabEMBs), and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean, alongside local civil society groups and regional and international media.
(MENA)
