Pro-Sisi party take strong lead in Egypt's parliamentary polls

Second round of voting sees 29 per cent turnout

Election officials wearing face masks count ballots following the second round of Egypt's parliamentary election, amid the coronavirus outbreak, in Cairo, Egypt, November 8, 2020. REUTERS

Egypt’s Mostaqbal Watn (Nation’s Future) Party took a commanding lead in parliamentary polls on Sunday as the election commission announced results from a second round of voting.

Pre-selected lists headed by the party, which strongly supports Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, won all 284 seats allocated for the 596-seat chamber through a winner-takes-all system.

Mostaqbal Watn candidates also won 59 of the 73 seats contested by individual candidates that have so far been declared by the commission.

Remaining individual seats will be decided in run-offs later this month and in early December. Mr Al Sisi can appoint 28 legislators himself.

Turnout in the two rounds of voting in an election that began on October 24 was 29 per cent so far, according to the election commission. That accounts for around 9.2 million people casting their ballots out of 31 million eligible voters, National Elections Authority (NEA) head Lashin Ibrahim said.

Many candidates and parties filed legal complaints to the commission alleging electoral fraud, but all have so far been dismissed. Some have also taken complaints to the courts.

Mr Ibrahim, appealed to Egyptians to participate in the run-offs, urging them not to listen to rumours spread by “enemies of the homeland”.

Supporters of the incumbent President already controlled parliament, but Nation’s Future has emerged as a dominant force and won nearly 75 per cent of contested seats for Egypt’s newly recreated Senate in August.