European Forum

Egypt’s first elections since the fall of the Mubarak regime

Despite the intense violence that rocked Egypt in the last weeks, Egyptians headed to the polls on November 28 in the country’s first elections after three decades of rule under Mubarak.

Background

Egyptian former President Hosni Mubarak was ousted in February after the series of pro-democracy protests against his authoritarian rule, that became known as ‘Arab Spring’. The subsequent rule of the military council, which failed to carry out immediate democratic transformations in the country, provoked a new wave of uprisings last month. In response to the deadly clashes between the demonstrators and security forces, the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces (SCAF) promised to speed up the transition to civilian rule. Military rulers also pledged that the elections for the People’s Assembly, that were feared to be postponed because of the clashes, will take place as scheduled.

First round of the parliamentary elections

The elections for the lower house of the Egyptian parliament, the 508-member People's Assembly (Majlis Al-Sha'b), are held in three rounds - from 28 November 2011 to 10 January 2012. 166 members are elected from individual candidates by absolute majority vote to serve 5-year terms and 332 members are elected through a closed-list proportional representation system to serve 5-year terms. As the first round of the polling took place on November 28-29, the electoral commission has announced the votes won by the party lists and the indivdual candidates. Only four individual candidates have secured seats without needing a run-off, that is scheduled for December 5. The results for the party lists can not be translated into seats yet, as the calculations are dependent on the turnout in the districts were voting hasn't taken place yet.

Results