Semi-official results of last week’s Senate election show that the liberalMostaqbalWatan(Future of the Homeland) party has swept the polls.

Of the 100 individual seats being contested MostaqbalWatangainedalmost70.What’s more, 20 ofMostaqbalWatan’s candidates will facea re-run on 8 and 9 September.

In party list seats, the 100-candidate National Unified List led byMostaqbalWatanwon uncontested. The list was able to secure the five per cent threshold necessary to be declared the winner.Prominent names onthe list include the businessmen AhmedSabbour, Mohamed Al-ManzlawiandGamalAbul-Fotouh.

The semi-official results were released by the MostaqbalWatanParty’s Youth Secretariat. The official results were unavailable as Al-Ahram Weekly went to press.

In Cairo,MostaqbalWatanwon eightoutof10 contested individual seats, and in Alexandria sixout of seven contested individual seats.

In the governorates of Beheira,Qalioubiya, Damietta,Daqahliya,Sharqiya, Giza,Fayoum, and Minya,MostaqbalWatan appeared to have won all the available seats.

The party is a vociferous supporter of President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi’seconomic reform and anti-terrorism policies.

The People’s Republican Party, led by steel tycoon Ahmed AbuHashima, won fiveindividual seats. A single independent,HadiLouis Morgan, won a seat in Cairo.

The semi-official results showed eight independents, three IslamistNourParty candidates, as well as candidates affiliated with Tagammu, Congress, Reform and Development, Guardians of the Nation, Egyptian Freedom and Wafdparties will compete in second round run-offs.

LasheenIbrahim, head of the NationalElections Authority (NEA), announced on Monday that the official and final results of the Senate poll would be available on Wednesday.

“The final results can only be announced once the election appeals filed with the NEA are settled,” said Ibrahim.

He added thepoll was conducted in an atmosphere of integrity and transparency.“The voting was fully supervised by judges, the polls were monitored by the media and civil society organisations, and the NEA received just five complaints from foreign reporters covering the vote.

“In general, the media was free to cover the Senate elections across Egypt. Indeed, 564 foreign reporters from 163 media institutions reported on the polls.”

Ibrahimsaidthe army and the Interior Ministry intensified security measures to secure the ballot and ensure a safe environment for citizens as they cast their votes. “The Health Ministryalso provided2,800 ambulances and 7,000 medical staff across polling locations nationwide,” said Ibrahim.

“Sterilisationmeasureswere applied throughout the voting process. They includedthe disinfection of areas where voters were present,including the polling stations, offices, ballot boxes and tents outside polling stations,” said Ibrahim.“Disinfection gates were installed in front of every polling station to protect voters against infection, and face masks and social distancing were mandatory inside polling stations.”

A total of 787 candidates competed for individual seats in the new chamber, created when constitutional amendments were approved last year.

The Senate, which has a five-year term, has 300 seats. One third of senators are elected via the individual candidacy system, a third through closed party lists, and a third will be named by the president.

Ibrahim said “large numbers of voters, particularly women and young people, were keen to cast their votesin the first round of the polls.”

Civil society organisations monitoring the two-day poll said the turnout was highest during late afternoon and eveninghours.

Ibrahimsaid campaigning for run-offs will begin on 20 August and continue until 5 September, while the vote will be on 8 and 9 September, from 9am to 9pm, in Egypt, and on 6 and 7 September for Egyptian expats.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 20 August, 2020 edition ofAl-Ahram Weekly

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