Egyptians begin casting their ballots on Friday for a new legislature that is virtually certain to follow in the footsteps of its forerunners, serving as a tame chamber that essentially acts as a rubber stamp for government policies.
Expatriate Egyptians, who are estimated to number about 10 million, vote on Friday and Saturday. The balloting takes place in 136 Egyptian embassies and consulates in a total of 117 nations around the world.
Expatriates cast their ballots again on November 21 and 22.
The much more crucial vote at home, where 108 million people live, is also staggered over two stages, with voters going to the polls on November 10 and 11 in 14 provinces and again on November 24 and 25 in 13 other provinces.
The final results will be announced around mid-December.
The vote is for 568 seats in the legislature, with President Abdel Fattah El Sisi appointing 28 more. The seats to be contested are divided into two groups of 284 each. The first half is elected through a winner-takes-all system of “closed lists”. The second half is contested by individual candidates, including independent ones.
The election comes after Egyptians in August voted for the chamber's upper house, or the senate. That vote garnered an anaemic turnout of 17.5 per cent, something that revived questions about the purpose of a consultative house that is not mandated to pass laws.
The senate has 300 members, of whom 100 are selected by Mr El Sisi, Egypt's leader of 11 years.
Like those before it over the past decade, this month's election for the Council of Deputies, or Majlis El Nouaab, is expected to produce a chamber that is predominantly loyal to the government.
Pro-government coalitions are expected to sweep the 284 seats available to “closed lists” since they are running unopposed and only need five per cent of the votes cast to win. Allied loyalists are also expected to take most of the 284 other seats set aside for individual candidates.
This forecast, which is identical to those that preceded parliamentary elections in the past decade, has significantly diminished popular interest in this month's vote.
The lack of enthusiasm on the part of nearly 70 million registered voters has left carefully choreographed campaign rallies and giant street billboards bearing images of candidates in their best attire as virtually the only evidence that a nationwide election is soon to take place.
Further dampening interest is the economic crisis gripping the country, with a recent rise in fuel prices causing another wave of price increases that have deepened the economic woes of most Egyptians.
However, Mr El Sisi has been talking up the economy.
In televised comments just days after the government increased fuel prices last month for the 20th time since 2019, he said: “The people can see that our economic conditions are difficult but they also see the government making serious efforts to overcome them.
“We pay heed to public opinion but the challenge facing us is very big and we are doing everything we can … With God's grace, our economy is improving.”
Since the Russia-Ukraine war broke out in 2022, Egypt has devalued its currency three times, suffered double-digit inflation that rose to nearly 40 per cent in late 2023 and endured a shortage of foreign currency that badly afflicted industries reliant on imports.
