Elections watch: Phase 2 results voided at just 2 polling stations despite widespread violations

The National Elections Authority announced on Tuesday the preliminary results for the second phase of this year’s parliamentary elections, cancelling the results recorded at two polling stations in the Belqas and Daqahlia districts.

While victories were announced for candidates in 28 districts, runoffs are to be held later this month for some of the seats in 55 districts where there was no clear winner, the authority said.

The press conference was held as cancellations in a total of 49 constituencies haunt the results of phase one, with the authority under heavy scrutiny after ubiquitous accusations of electoral rigging, voter bribery and coercion and other violations prompted a rare presidential intervention into the electoral process.

The cancellations in phase two — which saw voting take place in 14 governorates including Cairo, most of the Delta and Sinai — include the results recorded at a polling station in the Belqas district of Daqahlia, where the son of a candidate stormed the station and broke ballot boxes, with footage of the incident shared widely online.

The other cancellation was in the Toukh district of Qalyubiya, where flyers “commenting on the polling station” were being distributed outside, NEA chair Hazem Badawy said in Tuesday’s presser.

The NEA did not announce the successful candidates’ party affiliations, but reports showed a clear majority of seats went to the security-affiliated Nation’s Future Party. Notable successes for parties or independents who are not state-aligned included Islam Qortam’s victory in his Cairo seat for the Conservatives Party and independent Diaa Eddin Dawoud’s reelection in Damietta’s first district.

No individual seats went to the opposition party, the Egyptian Social Democratic Party, in the second phase.

The NEA also announced runoff rounds for some of the seats in 55 constituencies where no single candidate had achieved more than 50 percent of the vote. The runoffs will be held on December 15 and 16 abroad and December 17 and 18 domestically.

Thirty-one seat runoffs were called in the authority’s announcement of results in phase one.

For the rest of the districts, results were accepted without comment, despite electoral violations ranging from bribery to assault documented by Mada Masr at the time.

As for the more than 250 seats allocated to candidates running in the absolute list system, the National List for Egypt ran unopposed. The list comprised a coalition of candidates curated by major pro-government parties and their allies.

The list therefore won the election after passing the five-percent minimum voter participation threshold to secure its seats, the NEA announced.

According to the authority, 10.97 percent of the voter base in the Cairo and South and Central Delta districts cast votes for the national list, along with 12.71 percent in the West Delta district.

The list also passed the five-percent threshold in phase one.

Phase one of the parliamentary election was marred by widespread voter bribery and coercion and orchestrated mobilization, prompting the NEA to cancel the results in 19 districts — following an intervention in which President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said the elections should “please God” and reflect voters’ true will The Supreme Administrative Court later annulled the results in 30 more districts after accepting candidate appeals, with court documentation showing that judges based their decision for many of the cancelled districts on the NEA’s failure to deliver documentation of the vote count.

Candidates in phase two have 48 hours to appeal the results announced Tuesday, with courts granted a 10-day period to review and consider the appeals.

As commentators speculate on the legitimacy of next year’s legislative session, or lack thereof, in light of the degree of electoral violations and the court’s annulment of 70 percent of phase one’s results, Badawy insisted during Tuesday’s conference that the NEA has nothing to hide and does not provide cover to the perpetrators of violations.

He said that phase two of the parliamentary elections witnessed “strict discipline and a climate of democracy and fairness,” stressing that reports of election violations do not undermine the elections, but instead prove that the country has “a mature democratic system” that is capable of exposing and penalizing such violations.

Badawy added that, this time, the NEA looked into the complaints of candidates and voters outside polling stations, as well as complaints on social media and reports investigated by the Public Prosecution into actions observed by security authorities far from the polling stations.

The post Elections watch: Phase 2 results voided at just 2 polling stations despite widespread violations first appeared on Mada Masr.