Ahmed Kamel – Egypt Daily News
Egypt’s National Election Authority (NEA) has annulled first-round parliamentary results in 19 constituencies across the country, marking one of the most significant disruptions to a national election in recent years. The announcement was made during a press conference by NEA Chairman Counselor Hazem Badawi, who detailed the findings that led to voiding the results and outlined the new electoral timetable.
The canceled constituencies span six governorates: one in Giza, four in Qena, seven in Sohag, two in Fayoum, one in Alexandria, and three in Beheira. The decision followed numerous reports and formal complaints documenting violations that the NEA said compromised both transparency and the principle of equal opportunity among candidates.
Journalist Ahmed Al-Adl reported that the NEA received 88 official appeals from districts included in the first phase of voting. After reviewing these challenges, the authority cited several breaches that directly affected the integrity of the process. Among them were preventing candidate representatives from attending vote counting, commencing the count before the scheduled time, mismatches between committee tallies, failure to provide candidates with official count copies, and campaign advertisements displayed directly outside polling stations.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi had urged the election authority a day earlier to thoroughly investigate all incidents and appeals, emphasizing that the legitimacy of the next parliament depends on reflecting the genuine will of Egyptians. Under the current constitution, this will be the final parliament elected during Sisi’s third and final permitted term. This year’s vote employs a hybrid system combining individual candidates and fixed closed lists; the pro-government National List for Egypt has already secured the required 5 percent threshold to claim list-based seats.
In the wake of the annulments, the NEA has ordered a complete rerun of voting in all 19 affected constituencies. Egyptians living abroad will cast their ballots on December 1 and 2, while domestic voting is scheduled for December 3 and 4. Results will be announced on December 11. If runoffs are required, they will take place on December 24 and 25 abroad and on December 27 and 28 inside Egypt, with final results due on January 4.
Campaigning in the rerun constituencies will resume immediately following the official announcement of the first-phase results. Candidates will have 48 hours from that announcement no later than November 20, to file legal challenges. The Supreme Administrative Court is expected to issue rulings on all appeals between November 21 and November 30.
Turnout in the first round of the elections reached approximately 23 percent, according to the NEA. The second phase of national voting is scheduled to proceed next week, even as the rerun preparations begin.
The wave of cancellations, combined with renewed scrutiny of the process, underscores the NEA’s effort to assert electoral integrity amid mounting public and political attention. The coming weeks are poised to shape not only the composition of the next parliament, but also broader confidence in the country’s electoral institutions.
