Results announced by Egypt's National Elections Authority on Sunday showed that the pro-government Mostaqbal Watan (Nation's Future) party-led coalition was easily able to win 284 seats reserved to four-party list districts in the two-stage polls.
In the first stage, held between 21 and 25 October, the coalition won 142 seats contested in two-party list districts: North, Middle, and South Upper Egypt (100 seats) and Western Delta (42 seats).
In the second stage, held between 4 and 8 November, the coalition got another 142 seats in additional two-party list districts: Cairo, North, Middle, and South Delta (100 seats) and Eastern Delta (42 seats).
The above figures mean that the Mostaqbal Watan-led coalition has already won half of the new parliament's 568-contested seats.
They also mean that the new parliament will not be much different from the existing one, as a big number of high-ranking MPs and heads of committees were able to retain their seats through the party lists.
These include parliament speaker Ali Abdel-Aal; first deputy parliament speaker Mahmoud El-Sherif; second deputy speaker Soliman Wahdan; and leader of the majority and chairman of the Social Solidarity Committee Abdel-Hadi Al-Qasabi.
The list of the coalition's winners also include most of Mostaqbal Watan's senior officials such as the party's first deputy chairman and head of parliament's Sports and Youth Committee Ashraf Rashad; second deputy chairman and head of parliament's Human Rights Committee Alaa Abed.
They also include parliamentary spokesperson of the Mostaqbal Watan party Atef Nasr, with the chairmen of parliament's committees of religious affairs, telecommunications and information technology, education, and small-scale projects were also able to retain their seats.
The Mostaqbal Watan-led coalition in the four-party list districts faced symbolic and insignificant competition from three rival blocs which were little known to the majority of Egyptians.
Competition in the run-off rounds of the first and second stages of the election will be limited to individual candidates. Some 73 individual seats (32 of them in the first stage and 41 in the second) were filled.
The remaining seats – 211 – will be up for grabs in the run-offs. Some 110 seats will be contested in the run-off round of the first stage, scheduled to be held between 21 and 24 November in 14 governorates: Giza, Fayoum, Beni Suef, Minya, Assiut, El-Wadi El-Gedid, Sohag, Qena, Luxor, Aswan, the Red Sea, Alexandria, Beheira, and Matrouh.
Another 101 seats will be contested in the run-off round of the second stage, scheduled to be held between 5 and 8 December in 13 governorates: Cairo, Qalioubiya, Daqahliya, Menoufiya, Gharbiya, Kafr El-Sheikh, Sharqiya, Damietta, Port Said, Ismailiya, Suez, North Sinai, and South Sinai.
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