Egypt Votes in 2nd Round of Controversial Parliamentary Polls

Egyptians went to the polls Sunday as they voted in the second phase of the parliamentary elections after three years without an assembly amid accusations of undermined political freedom and repression.

According to media reports, voter turnout has been low in the 13 provinces of the country’s 27 where voting is taking place. The second round of the elections will take place over two days, Sunday and Monday, and is seen by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi as a step forward towards democratic reform.

Stage 2 of parliamentary polls taking place today&tomorrow. Another show off to say loud Egypt is about to complete roadmap #EgyElections

— Alessandra Bajec (@AlessandraBajec) November 22, 201

An estimated 160,000 troops have been deployed around the 13 provinces, including the capital Cairo, to aid the police in securing the polls.

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Voters in the remaining 14 provinces had cast their votes in October, with about 26 percent turnout, the local Ahram newspaper reported Sunday citing the supervising High Elections Committee (HEC).

"There is no reason to vote, these elections don’t mean anything. All these candidates are running so they can get MP perks," Hassan, a 21-year-old student who declined to give his full name, told Reuters Sunday.

EGYPT - Women queue at a polling station in Cairo for parliamentary elections. By haled Desouki #AFP pic.twitter.com/4vSy9rBfOt

— Frédérique Geffard (@fgeffardAFP) November 22, 201

In the first round on Oct. 18 and 19, pro-Sissi candidates scored a landslide victory and are expected to do the same in the second round.

Sissi, then head of the army, staged a military coup in 2013 against the country’s first democratically-elected President Mohamed Morsi less than a year after he took office.

In summer 2014, Sissi ran for presidential elections and won by more than 90 percent amid a major crackdown on dissent and opposition and less than 30 percent turnout

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Morsi is now facing the death penalty and many members of his party, the Muslim Brotherhood, have been executed or serving life sentences.

“Starting from the very political set up, alongside the current climate of repression of fundamental freedoms, one can actually understand violations like buying votes, banning opposition party lists, intimidation, irregularities in the vote-counting, or lack of transparency,” Alessandra Bajec, Cairo-based analyst and Journalist, wrote in a teleSUR op ed this month.

Bajec added that a parliament under such conditions where opposition voices are not represented, will ensure that “el-Sissi, rather than the Parliament, is in control of the democratic transition, de facto maintaining the one-man rule.

Parliamentary elections taking place in Egypt for the 2nd time since the revolution, in 4 years we only had 1 parliament for a brief period

— Gigi Ibrahim (@Gsquare86) November 22, 201

Egypt's parliament — the House of Representatives — ‎will be comprised of 596 members, 448, or 75 percent, elected as independents ‎and 120 from party-based lists. The remaining 28 seats ‎will be filled by presidential appointments. Critics say that such setting favors prominent and wealthy supporters of the government.

Egypt's last parliament was elected in 2011-12, in the first election after the popular uprising that ended former President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule. Voting then was marked by a high turnout and national excitement. The Muslim Brotherhood won about half the seats.

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