Egyptians cast votes in parliamentary runoffs

Egyptians will head to the polls Tuesday and Wednesday to vote in the run-offs of the first phase of the parliamentary elections amid appeals by candidates against a few of the results of the first round.

A total of 4,000 Egyptian expats have voted at the parliamentary elections runoff thus far, with the community in Kuwait recording the highest turnout, the Assistant Foreign Minister Hamdy Loza said on Monday. The run-off is scheduled to take place in two days.

Turnout for the first round of voting held in 14 provinces last week was put at about 26.5 percent by the electoral commission, and voters are unlikely to be more numerous this time round. There was no immediate indication that more voters were casting their ballots in the run-off.

Candidates loyal to President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi are again expected to be the victors, in the absence of any significant opposition.

While the Muslim Brotherhood, the country’s main opposition group for decades, has been banned from contesting after it was declared a “terrorist group”, several secular groups are either boycotting the vote or are badly represented.

Since Mohamed Morsi, the country’s first democratically-elected president, was toppled by the military under the leadership of Sisi in July 2013, the government has overseen a crackdown targeting Brotherhood supporters and other critics.

Egypt’s last parliament, dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood, was elected in 2011-12 in the first election after the popular uprising that ended Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year rule.