Egypt's second round of elections starts its second day at 8am in the nine governorates ofGiza, Sohag, Beni Suef, Aswan, Sharqiya, Menoufiya, Beheira, Ismailiya and Suez. While the second round should have seen the election of 120 MPs in 15 electoral districts via the proportional list voting system, only 96 MPs will be voted in on Thursday in just 12 electoral districts after the Supreme Electoral Commission postponed party list elections in the three of the nine governorates. Parliamentary elections for the electoral lists in the governorates of Beheira, Sohag and Menoufiya have been postponed for a week to 21 and 22 December after an Administrative Court ruling thatsome parties were not included on the ballot paper in the second constituencies of Beheira and Sohag andMenoufiya's first constituency.Another 60 MPs are also expected to be voted in through the individual candidacy voting system in 30 electoral districts. So far, estimations are that the governorate of Suez witnessed the highest turnout on the second day of the parliamentary election's second round. Giza also witnessed a high turnout in the constituencies of Haram, Boulaq, Omraneya and Talbeya. However, the constituencies of 6 October and Sheikh Zayed were almost empty of voters. According to the interior ministry, constituencies in five of the nine governorates have witnessed delays in voting procedure as judges supervising the elections arrived later than the set date. These governorates include Giza, Beheira, Sohag, Aswan and Sharqiya. Two major violations have been so far reported. The Egyptian Bloc complained that its headquarters in Suez had been attacked by what Bloc members described as “hired thugs”. The Bloc blamed Islamist parties for the attack, claiming that it is not the first of its kind. However, unknown eyewitnesses claimed that the damage made to the Bloc's headquarters was due to an internal party disagreement between its members. On the other hand, the Revolution Continues electoral alliance stated Wednesday night that the head of its party list in Sharqiya, Mohamed Yasser El-Rifay, had been severely beaten by army soldiers. According to an official statement made by the alliance, El-Rifay was assaulted by army soldiers following a dispute on whether the party candidate should be allowed in the polling station or not; El-Rifay insisted he should be allowed in while military personnel at the door refused him entry. El-Rifay was dragged into the polling station building and beaten so severly that he had to be moved to hospital where he remained unconscious for several hours. Violations reported in the first round were mainly limited to persistent campaigningas voters queued to vote. The violations so far reported in the second round are much more serious and violent than those reported in the first round. Islamists gained a much higher number of seats than expected in the first round. The individual candidacy seats were particularly monopolised by Islamist parties. However, the liberal dominated Egyptian Bloc said it was better prepared to contest the individual candidacy seats in the second round as it plans to coordinate with non-Islamist candidates that do not necessarily belong to the Bloc's alliance.
