Students attend class on the first day of their new school year at a government school in Giza, south of Cairo (Reuters)
Egyptian schools will be closed on 27 and 28 October in some constituencies of the 14 governorates where runoffs are taking place, the education ministry announced on Tuesday.
The first stage of the elections, which took place on 18 and 19 October, witnessed 5,900 candidates contesting 226 individual seats with 27 million voters.
Polling stations are set up in public schools.
Preliminary results have been announced by the media and candidates representatives who were present at the time of vote counting inside polling stations.
However, official results are scheduled to be announced on 22 October. Once they are announced, it will be clear which constituencies will have runoffs.
According to preliminary results, in Agouza and Dokki constituency in Giza governorate there will be a runoff between Ahmed Mortada Mansour, a Zamalek Club board member and the son of controversial lawyer Mortada Mansour, for the Free Egyptians Party, against independent candidate and former parliamentarian Amr El-Shobaki.
The most prominent political parties in the runoff round will be the Free Egyptians Party, which press reports indicate might have more than 40 candidates, as well as the Wafd Party, which has 25 candidates in the runoffs, according to El-Sayed El-Badawy, the party's chairman.
The Salafist Nour party leader Ahmed El-Sherif reportedly said that his party will be contesting 24 seats in the runoff round, while the chairman of Mostaqbal Watan (Future of a Nation), Mohamed Badran, said that his party is contesting 48 seats in the runoffs.
The second stage of the parliamentary elections, when Egypt's 13 other governorates will vote, will take place on 22-23 November, and 21-22 November for expatriates.
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