Egypt's Senate Elections 2020 – where citizens are casting their ballots to choose their representatives in the newly-founded council – have been trending on social media over the past few days. The elections, which are being held amid tight preventative measures over the coronavirus pandemic, have attracted media coverage. The two-day-long voting period for Egyptians abroad concluded a few hours ago. Voting inside the country started on Tuesday morning and it will last until Wednesday evening. Many news outlets are publishing their elections related news items under the hashtags #Egypt_senate_elections_2020 and #انتخابات_مجلس_الشيوخ. Using the same hashtags, voters have posted photos of themselves inside polling stations while wearing the obligatory protective masks and keeping a safe distance in voting queues outside polling stations. The hashtags continue to trend in Egypt for the third consecutive day. Around 63 million Egyptians from the country's population of over 100 million people are eligible to cast ballots. A total of 787 candidates are competing for seats in the 300-seat parliamentary upper chamber, which was created in accordance with constitutional amendments approved last year. Two-thirds of the members will be elected via the individual candidacy and the closed party list systems, and the rest will be appointed by the president. Women will hold a quota of at least 25 percent of the seats in the chamber. The council will act as an advisory chamber to the House of Representatives. It will be in place of the Shura Council, an upper house of parliament that was dissolved in 2014. The results of the first round of voting will be announced on 19 August. The run-off vote will take place in September.
