Voting in the troubled North Sinai governorate on Tuesday has been taking place smoothly on the first day of run-offs in the second stage of Egypt's parliamentary elections, deputy justice minister for judiciary security Magdy Hussein Abdel-Khaleq said.

Last Tuesday, seven people, including judges and security personnel, were killed and eight were injured in Al-Arish in an attack on a hotel that was accommodating judges supervising the elections.  Islamist militant group Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis that pledged allegiance to ISIS in November 2014 claimed the attack.

The deputy justice minister said security forces made sure the judges supervising the elections were safely accommodated and reached the polling stations, and will accompany them wherever they are until they return from North Sinai.

A total number of 16,000 judges, state council members, prosecutors and administrative prosecutors have taken the responsibility of supervising polling stations in both stages.

Abdel-Khaleq specifically mentioned the smooth voting process in Be'r El-Abd and Arish constituencies, where run-offs are taking place.

Two other constituencies, Rafah and Sheikh Zuweid, as well as Central Sinai, saw two independent candidates win in the first round of stage two of the elections, as each is allocated one seat in the parliament.

A Salafist Nour Party candidate, Mostafa Abdel-Rahman, was shot dead by unknown assailants in October in Al-Arish, a month before the second stage of parliamentary elections started.

North Sinai has seen an upsurge in a decade-long Islamist militant insurgency that spiked following the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013.

The army has been fighting the insurgency, with hundreds of security force members and militants killed.