The third and final round of Egypt`s first post-revolution elections draw to close Wednesday amid scattered reports of irregularities.
Third-round run-off elections in Egypt’s first post-Mubarak parliamentary polls were held for the second and final day on Wednesday. According to midday reports, polling stations in several governorates had seen a relatively low turnout.
Runoffs are currently being held in nine Egyptian governorates (Qalioubiya, Gharbiya, Dakhaliya, North and South Sinai, Marsa Matrouh, Minya, New Valley and Qena), in which eighty-six candidates are vying for forty-three seats in the People’s Assembly (the lower house of Egypt’s parliament).
Thirty candidates from the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) are competing for seats, compared to twenty-six candidates from the Salafist Nour Party. The rest belong to the liberal Wafd Party and the conservative El-Adl Party, or are independent candidates.
In the Upper Egyptian Assuit governorate, candidates and campaigners urged citizens to cast ballots, with some launching door-to-door campaigns in an effort to reach out to voters.
In Gharbiya’s second polling district, meanwhile, limited clashes were reported between FJP and Nour Party supporters. In Qalioubiya, elections were cancelled in the city of Benha’s first district by administrative court order after inconsistencies were reportedly found in the voters list.
In Dakhaliya’s first district, the local elections committee announced that additional run-offs for the labourers’ seat would be held on 14 and 15 January. And an administrative court in the Nile Delta Mansoura governorate ordered the elections committee to halt runoffs in that governorate’s first district.
[Produced in partnership with Ahram Online.]
From Jadaliyya Editors:
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