Elections in Egypt
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Elections in Egypt are held for the head of state – president of Egypt – and a bicameral legislature. On account of the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, a new legislature is being elected. Once fully elected, it will be tasked with appointing a committee to write a new Constitution of Egypt.
The President of Egypt is elected for a six-year term by popular vote. Previously, the president was nominated by the People's Assembly and confirmed by popular referendum. This is similar to how Syria selects it's president.
The People's Assembly (Majlis al-Sha'ab, lower house) has 508 members, 498 members elected for a five-year term by both proportional representation and single-seat constituencies) and 10 members added by the president. Elections to the People's Assembly take place in three phases by governorate with two separate days for the proportional and constituency elections, with runoffs 15 days later (if needed), making a total of 12 unique "election days" held throughout the country.
The Shura Council (Majlis al-Shura, upper house) has 264 members. Of these, 174 members are directly elected and the remaining 90 are appointed by the President. Council members serve six-year terms, with one half of their number being renewed every third year.
Suffrage is universal and compulsory for every Egyptian citizen over 18. Failure to vote can result in fine or even imprisonment.[1] However, perhaps due to lax enforcement [2], only about 32 million voters are registered (approximately 40% of the total population). Turnout in 1999 was estimated at around 10%. [3]
Prior to the 2011 revolution which dispossessed Hosni Mubarak, elections in Egypt were criticized by the domestic opposition as well as international observers as being grossly fraudulent, bordering on show elections. The Muslim Brotherhood, often claimed to be the largest opposition group in Egypt, was illegal and formally excluded from the political process until after the revolution. Other opposition groups boycott elections, claiming that exclusion of the Muslim Brotherhood (as well as the alleged corruption of the Mubarak government) undermines the credibility of the elections.
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[edit] Kingdom of Egypt (1922–1953)
The Kingdom of Egypt was granted nominal independence by the United Kingdom on 28 February 1922. Between the Declaration of 1922 and the Revolution of 1952, ten general elections were held (in 1924, 1925, 1926, 1929, 1931, 1936, 1938, 1942, 1945 and 1950).[1] This era is generally known as Egypt's Liberal Experiment. Egypt has never recovered the level of political freedom it enjoyed during this period.[2]
During the four elections held between 1924 and 1929, candidates from the Coptic Christian minority received 15 to 23 seats. Copts received four seats in 1931, six in 1938, 12 in 1945, and five in 1950.[3] The opposition's share of seats also varied throughout this period. The opposition won 15.1% of the seats in the 1924 election, 18.9% in 1926, 6.9% in 1929, 18.1% in 1936, 12.1% in 1942, and 29.2% in the 1950 election, the last to be held prior to the 1952 Revolution which ended Egypt's multi-party system.[4]
| Electoral year | Total seats in the Chamber of Deputies |
Wafd Party | Big Landowners | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seats won | Percentage | Seats won | Percentage | ||
| 1924 | 214 | 181 | 84.6 | 93 | 43.5 |
| 1925 | 214 | 113 | 52.8 | 95 | 44.4 |
| 1926 | 214 | 172 | 80.4 | 105 | 49.1 |
| 1929 | 235 | 212 | 90.2 | 108 | 45.9 |
| 1931 | 150 | 0 | 0.0 | 58 | 38.7 |
| 1936 | 232 | 180 | 77.6 | 112 | 48.3 |
| 1938 | 264 | 14 | 5.3 | 131 | 49.6 |
| 1942 | 264 | 203 | 76.9 | 93 | 35.2 |
| 1945 | 285 | 0 | 0.0 | 123 | 43.2 |
| 1950 | 317 | 157 | 49.5 | 119 | 37.5 |
[edit] Latest elections
[edit] 2005 Presidential election
| Candidates, Nominating parties | Votes | % |
|---|---|---|
| Hosni Mubarak, National Democratic Party (Al-Hizb Al-Watani Al-Dimuqrati) | 6,316,714 | 88.6 |
| Ayman Nour, Tomorrow Party (Hizb al-Ghad) | 540,405 | 7.3 |
| Numan Gomaa, New Wafd Party (Hizb al-Wafd al-Jadid) | 201,891 | 2.8 |
| Total (Turnout 22.9 %) | 7,059,010 |
[edit] 2005 Parliamentary election
| Parties | Votes | % | Seats | Gains | Losses | Net Gain/Loss |
Seats % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| National Democratic Party (Al'Hizb Al Watani Al Democrati) | 311 | ? | ? | ? | 68.5 | ||
| New Wafd Party (Hizb al-Wafd-al-Jadid) | 6 | ? | ? | ? | 1.3 | ||
| Progressive National Unionist Party (Hizb al Tagammo' al Watani al Taqadommi al Wahdwawi) | 2 | ? | -? | -? | 0.22 | ||
| Tomorrow Party (Hizb al-Ghad) | 1 | 0 | -1 | -1 | 0.2 | ||
| Independents (Muslim Brotherhood - al-ikhwān al-muslimūn) | 88 | ? | ? | ? | 19.4 | ||
| Independents (other) | 24 | ? | ? | ? | 5.3 | ||
| Still in contest | 0 | ||||||
| Unelected members | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2.2 | ||
| Arab Democratic Nasserist Party or Nasserist Party | 0 | 0 | -1 | -1 | 0 | ||
| Liberal Party (Hizb al-Ahrar) | 0 | 0 | -1 | -1 | 0 | ||
| Total (turnout %) | 454 | ||||||
[edit] Past elections
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[edit] Referendums
The first referendum in Egypt was held on 23 June 1956. The electorate agreed with the adoption of the new 1956 constitution, and with the election of Gamal Abdel Nasser as President of Egypt.[6]
[edit] See also
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Elections in Egypt |
[edit] References
- ^ Caldwell, J. A. M. (1966). Dustūr: A Survey of the Constitutions of the Arab and Muslim States. Reprinted with additional material from the 2nd ed. of Encyclopaedia of Islam. Leiden: Brill. p. 29. OCLC 255757167. http://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en#hl=en&tbs=bks%3A1&q=There+had+been+ten+general+elections+held+from+1924+to+1952.+These+were+the+elections+of+1924%2C+1925%2C+1926%2C+1929%2C+1931%2C+1936%2C+1938%2C+1942%2C+1945+and+1950.&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&fp=fcc3787c743ffd08. Retrieved 2010-07-21. "There had been ten general elections held from 1924 to 1952. These were the elections of 1924, 1925, 1926, 1929, 1931, 1936, 1938, 1942, 1945 and 1950."
- ^ "Polity IV Regime Trends: Egypt, 1946–2008". Polity data series. Center for Systemic Peace. http://www.systemicpeace.org/polity/egy2.htm. Retrieved 2010-07-21.
- ^ Mansour, Atallah (2004). Narrow Gate Churches: The Christian Presence in the Holy Land under Muslim and Jewish Rule. Pasadena, CA: Hope Publishing House. p. 110. ISBN 9781932717020. http://books.google.com/books?id=rukHhGrQfHkC&pg=PA110. Retrieved 2010-07-22.
- ^ Quandt, William B. (1988). The Middle East: Ten Years After Camp David. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press. p. 75. ISBN 9780815772934. http://books.google.com/books?id=pYzO8zmNEmcC&pg=PA75. Retrieved 2010-07-22.
- ^ Ansari, Hamied (1986). Egypt, the Stalled Society. SUNY series in Near Eastern studies. Albany: State University of New York Press. p. 71. ISBN 9780887061837. http://books.google.com/books?id=DVxr9qy-g2EC&pg=PA71. Retrieved 2010-07-23.
- ^ Marques, Alvaro; Smith, Thomas B. (April 1984). "Referendums in the Third World" (fee required). Electoral Studies Vol. 3 (1): pp. 85–105. doi:10.1016/0261-3794(84)90025-8. ISSN 0261-3794. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6V9P-466GM7D-6&_user=10&_coverDate=04%2F30%2F1984&_rdoc=6&_fmt=high&_orig=browse&_srch=doc-info(%23toc%235904%231984%23999969998%23324130%23FLP%23display%23Volume)&_cdi=5904&_sort=d&_docanchor=&_ct=10&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=8f8c2aeffa5db7006bd552dd6eab96f3. Retrieved 2010-07-23. "There have been 13 referendums in Egypt, the first one being held on 23 June 1956 when voters were asked to approve or disapprove of Nasser and the constitution."
[edit] Bibliography
- den Hartog, Michael (1996–1998). A Two-Way Approach to Stability in the Arab Southern Mediterranean Coastal States: Theories on Democracy and International Cooperation Applied to Developments Regarding Political Stability in Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia (Report). NATO Academic Forum. http://www.nato.int/acad/fellow/96-98/denharto.pdf. Retrieved 2011-04-10.
- Landau, Jacob M. (1953). Parliaments and Parties in Egypt (PhD thesis). Tel Aviv: Israel Pub. House. OCLC 3263523. http://www.questia.com/read/65952285. Retrieved 2010-07-23.
[edit] External links
- jadaliyya.com Egypt Elections Watch
- Aswatna Virutal Resource Center a central resource for electoral information in Egypt
- Global Integrity Report: Egypt has analysis of election integrity in Egypt.
- Adam Carr's Election Archive
- IDEA Report on Egypt
- Elections in Egypt, Human Rights Watch, 2010
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