Egypt’s High Elections Committee (HEC) has revealed on Friday the final results of the parliamentary elections, which show that 57 percent of the new MPs are independent candidates while the remaining 43 percent are party-affiliated candidates.
“Now we have 568 MPs elected through direct secret ballot; 325 are independents while 243 are party affiliated,” said judge Ayman Abbas, the HEC head.
The figures released by Abbas come after the announcement of the results of the run-offs for 13 seats contested earlier this week in the re-runs in four electoral districts, with nine independents and four party-affiliated candidates clinching the seats.
Sixty-five members of the liberal Free Egyptians Party (FEP), founded by business and media tycoon Naguib Sawiris, secured the majority of independent seats among competing political parties.
More than 50 members of Mostaqbal Watan (Future of Homeland) came in second among parties whose members secured independent seats in the two election phases.
Egypt’s 2015 parliament is composed of 596 MPs, the highest number in Egypt’s 150-year parliamentary history. Out of the total, 448 will be elected as independents, 120 as party-based lists, and 28 will be appointed by the president.
Earlier this month, the HEC announced that the first and second stages of the polls, which took place in October and November, had a 28.3 percent turnout rate, with 15,206,010 out of 53,786,762 eligible voters casting their ballots in both stages.
The turnout has been deemed weak by analysts compared to the 2011 parliamentary elections, which exceeded 50 percent.
source: Ahram Online
