The two-day voting process will be followed by two days of domestic voting, starting Monday, 4 August.
The first polling stations to open abroad will be located in New Zealand, starting at 12am Cairo time on Thursday night due to time zone differences.
The following timeline represents the official procedures for the Senate elections for the second legislative term 2025–2030, as detailed by the National Election Authority (NEA).
Voting procedures
Polling abroad takes place at Egyptian embassies, consulates, or other locations determined by the NEA based on nominations from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Voting runs from 9am to 9pm. local time in each host country, with a one-hour break. If voters remain in line at closing time, their names are recorded and they are permitted to vote.
Eligible voters must be registered in the official voter database and possess either a valid national ID card or a passport containing their national ID number. These are the only acceptable identification documents.
Each voter will receive two ballots—one for individual candidates and one for closed party lists—and vote in secret.
Fully veiled women must verify their identity with a female committee member to be allowed to vote.
Voters with disabilities who cannot physically mark their ballots may privately inform the committee head of their choices, which will be recorded.
At the end of each voting day, ballots will be sealed and stored securely before being reopened the next morning under official supervision.
Once the voting process concludes, each polling committee tallies the votes for individual candidates and party lists separately, documents the results, and prepares all related materials—including ballots, voter registers, reports, and any appeals.
These are placed in the first diplomatic pouch and sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which forwards them to the central committee responsible for overseas voting.
The committee then compiles a final report and integrates the results into the overall national count.
Campaigning timeline
According to the NEA, a total of 428 candidates are competing for the 100 individual seats in the Senate. These include 186 independent candidates and 242 affiliated with political parties, according to the final candidate lists approved by the NEA.
The final candidate list was confirmed on 18 July, which also marked the beginning of the official campaign period. The deadline for candidates to withdraw was 20 July. The electoral silence period begins on Thursday 31 July.
Once voting concludes, the results will be announced on Tuesday 12 August in the official gazette and in the state-owned newspapers Akhbar Al-Youm and Al-Gomhuria newspapers.
Runoffs
According to the NEA, if a runoff is required, campaigning will resume on the same day the first-round results are announced. Appeals against the NEA’s decision to announce the results must be submitted within 48 hours, with the final deadline being Thursday 14 August.
The Supreme Administrative Court is scheduled to rule on any submitted appeals between 15 and 24 August, with the runoff electoral silence period beginning on 24 August.
The runoff voting for Egyptians abroad will take place on Monday and Tuesday, 25 and 26 August, followed by runoff voting within Egypt on Wednesday and Thursday, 27 and 28 August. The final results of the runoff round will be announced on Thursday, 4 September.
Candidates and party participation
Compared to the 2020 Senate elections, which saw three party lists and approximately 760 individual candidates, the 2025 elections present a smaller field. Only one party list—the National Unified List (NUL)—is contesting the list-based seats this year, and the number of individual candidates has decreased to 428.
Preliminary figures indicate that four political parties—Mostaqbal Watan (Nation’s Future), the Unified Front, Homat Watan (Protectors of the Nation), and the People’s Republican Party—are collectively fielding around 303 individual candidates in the upcoming Senate elections.
In parallel, opposition parties such as the Justice Party, the Egyptian Democratic Party, and the Reform and Development Party are also participating in the individual candidacy race with their nominees.
The National Unified List, which is the sole party list in the race, is led by Mostaqbal Watan and includes 12 political parties in total. Mostaqbal Watan is fielding 44 candidates within the list, followed by Homat Watan with 19 candidates and the National Front with 12.
Other participating parties in the list, such as the People’s Republican Party, Egyptian Democratic Party, Reform and Development Party, Justice Party, Wafd Party, Tagammu Party, Generation’s Will Party, Freedom Party, and the Congress Party, are each represented by five candidates or fewer.
The Mostaqbal Watan-led NUL includes high-profile businessman and construction magnate Mohamed Al-Morshedi, the deputy chairman of the Party. It also includes iron and steel business tycoon Ahmed Abu Hashima, deputy chairman of the People’s Republican Party, and the Wafd Party’s Deputy Chairman Tarek Abdel-Aziz.
Meanwhile, Abdel-Wahab Abdel-Razek, who served as speaker of the outgoing 2020–2025 Senate and is chairman of Mostaqbal Watan, has opted not to run in this election.
In terms of electoral geography, Egypt remains divided into 27 districts for individual candidacy contests. The party list system covers four nationwide districts: Cairo and South and Middle Delta, and North, Middle, and South Upper Egypt—each allocated 37 seats—alongside East Delta and West Delta, which are allocated 13 seats each. This district structure remains the same as in the 2020 Senate elections.
According to Senate law, if only one individual candidate or a single party list is running in a district, they must obtain at least 5 percent of the votes from registered voters in that district to be declared the winner; otherwise, the candidacy process is reopened.
The Senate
The Senate was re-established following constitutional amendments passed in April 2019. Under the amended constitution, the Senate holds purely advisory powers.
It is mandated to discuss draft laws, the state’s socio-economic development plans, foreign treaties, and general public policy matters.
However, the final decision-making authority on these issues rests exclusively with the House of Representatives, Egypt’s lower house of parliament.
The chamber will consist of 300 members: one-third elected through the individual candidacy system, one-third through closed party lists, and one-third appointed by the president of the republic.
In accordance with the Senate law, at least 10 percent of the seats must be allocated to women. Senate members serve a five-year term.
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