The Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) this week began reviewing 300 appeals challenging the outcomes of individual district contests in the first round of the second stage of Egypt’s parliamentary elections held on 24-25 November amid escalating political and legal controversy.
The SAC ordered on Sunday that 40 out of the total number of appeals be referred to the Cassation Court.
“These appeals have been filed against the legality of the election of MPs officially declared the winners by the National Election Authority [NEA],” the SAC said, indicating that “the court is exclusively authorised to decide on appeals filed against the results of the elections and before the candidates are declared the winners in compliance with Article 107 of the constitution.”
It announced that it had rejected three appeals and reserved the remaining 257 for judgement at the end of the week. It has up to 10 days and no later than 14 December to deliver final rulings.
Many candidates complained that the second stage had seen the use of “political money” on a grand scale. Monica Magdi, a candidate running for the individual seat of the densely populated district of Shubra and Road Al-Farag in North Cairo, told reporters that she had filed an appeal with the SAC as a last resort following what she described as “serious violations” that marred the electoral process in her district during the first round of the second stage.
Magdi, who is affiliated with the Reform and Renaissance Party, attracted media attention because of her campaign, which she led on a bicycle. She spoke about her team spotting “bribery and cash” used on a large scale to buy the votes of poorer people in her district on voting day.
Mohamed Khalil, a lawyer and independent candidate running for the individual seat of Tanta, the capital of the Middle Nile Delta governorate of Gharbiya, also confirmed to reporters that he would pursue an appeal “to the end”, citing “violations that undermined the integrity of the electoral process” and particularly related to “the use of political money” in his district.
On Saturday, the First Misdemeanour Court in Tanta sentenced a representative of one of the individual candidates to one year in prison with hard labour, after he was convicted of offering bribes and collecting identity cards to direct voters to elect a specific candidate in return for money.
The court said LE1,700 and nine ID cards were found in his possession.
Mohamed Al-Khatib, a lawyer and independent candidate running for the individual seat of the North Delta Kafr Al-Sheikh district, described the appeals as “an important step in restoring confidence in Egypt’s parliamentary elections and political life.”
He wrote on Facebook that he hopes the SAC rulings will contribute to “combating the practices of political money and safeguarding the true will of the voters.”
Abdel-Hamid Fouda, a lawyer representing Adel Al-Saidi, a candidate of the Modern Egypt Party in the individual district of Al-Bagour, told reporters that he had submitted videos of bribes being given to people to cast their votes in favour of specific candidates affiliated with pro-government parties to the SAC, noting that those responsible had been detained pending investigation.
Fouad said he had taken photos of people collecting the identity cards of citizens to direct them to vote in favour of specific candidates in return for money.
“I think the appeals have clearly shown to all that the use of political money in the current elections has reached unprecedented levels and that money has been used to manipulate the vote in favour of certain multi-millionaires who also paid bribes — in the form of donations — to be fielded by the pro-government political parties,” he said.
“Egypt is seeing a marriage between money and politics, and we all should do our best to fight this phenomenon.”
Gomaa Mohamed, a candidate affiliated with the Egyptian Social Democratic Party and running for the individual seat of the Sadat and Menouf district in Menoufiya governorate, told reporters that his appeal was based on numerous errors during the vote-counting process, in addition to the presence of people in front of the polling stations offering money to voters to cast their votes in favour of certain candidates.
Appeals were also submitted on the basis of “closing ballot boxes prematurely” and “errors in the vote-counting process”. To the surprise of many, such appeals were filed by some candidates affiliated with pro-government parties, particularly Mostaqbal Watan.
Among them is Al-Sayed Abdel-Moeti Khamis, the candidate of Mostaqbal Watan for the individual seat of Sinbilawin in the Nile Delta governorate of Daqahliya. He told the media that he had submitted evidence of violations to the SAC, including closing ballot boxes before the scheduled time, errors in vote tallying, and discrepancies between the number of votes for the list and individual candidates.
In Cairo’s Matariya district, independent candidate Atef Makhalif said he had submitted a tally sheet for the vote count that proved that the number of votes was not equal to the number of voters. Makhalif also submitted three folders of documents and videos showing people offering bribes.
Constitutional law professor Salah Fawzi told Al-Ahram Weekly there are several possible scenarios for the appeals filed with the SAC, including upholding the results as announced by the NEA, ordering a recount of the votes in polling stations in certain districts, referring appeals to the Court of Cassation, or ordering a re-election in certain districts if the SCA concludes that there were serious violations affecting the results of the elections and the integrity of the voting process.
Fawzi indicated that the NEA has provided the SAC with all the documents related to the districts whose results have been challenged, including the official vote-counting reports and the memoranda submitted by the appellants and their representatives. SAC rulings on election appeals are binding on the NEA, which is committed to implementing them.
The new developments regarding the parliamentary elections come this week amid continued controversy after the first stage of the polls witnessed a series of violations that prompted President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi to intervene and call upon the NEA to examine them.
These violations led the NEA to annul the results of the elections for individual seats in 19 districts across seven governorates in the first stage of the polls. This was followed by the SAC also deciding to invalidate the results of the polls in 30 individual districts in the first stage.
This brought the number of individual districts in which the results of the elections in the first phase were invalidated to 49 out of a total 70, or 64 per cent.
According to the SAC rulings, reruns were held in the 30 districts whose results were annulled. The first round took place on 8-9 December for Egyptians abroad and on 10-11 December for Egyptians at home, with the results to be announced on 18 December.
In case of a run-off, the elections will be held on 31 December-1 January for Egyptians abroad and on 3-4 January for those at home, with the final results to be announced on 10 January, or just two days before the new parliament is scheduled to meet.
As for the elections for the parliamentary seats in the 19 districts, along with the run-off in the Atsa district in Fayoum governorate, these were held on 1-2 December for Egyptians abroad and 3-4 December for those at home. The result is scheduled to be announced on 11 December.
NEA Executive Director Ahmed Bendari said that despite the number of appeals filed against the results of polls, the ballot will continue so that a new parliament reflecting the will of the electorate is elected.
“The NEA board members will stand as guardians and protectors of the voting process, defending its integrity and fairness and living up to the responsibility entrusted to us,” he said.
He called on people not to be dismayed by reports of political money in the elections and instead to show keenness to participate and go to the polling stations to elect the candidates they see as the most suitable and expressive of their aspirations and the ones they consider the most capable and worthy of living up to the responsibility of parliamentary legislation and oversight.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 11 December, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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