CAIRO: The first round of Egypt's Shoura Council elections was marked by a meager voter turnout of 6.5 percent, Head of the Supreme Electoral Commission (SEC), Judge Abdel Moez Ibrahim said on Thursday. In a press conference, Ibrahim commended what he described as the first Shoura Council to be freely elected by the Egyptian people, namely given the volatile circumstances surrounding the elections. The first round of elections, which took place Jan. 29-30 with run-offs on Feb. 7, covered 13 provinces: Cairo, Alexandria, Assiut, Red Sea, Daqahliya, Gharbeya, Fayoum, Menufiya, El-Wadi El-Gedid, Damietta, Qena and North and South Sinai. Round two of Shoura Council elections will be held Feb. 14-15 with run-offs scheduled for Feb. 22. The Upper House of Parliament will hold its first session on Feb. 28. Two-thirds of the council's 270 members are elected: half are professionals and the rest are workers and farmers. Of these, 120 are elected through party lists while 60 are single winner seats. The remaining third of 90 members is appointed by the president of the republic. “The council will operate with the elected [180] members until the president is elected,” Ibrahim previously told reporters. Round one tally Results announced mirrored those of the People's Assembly, with the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) taking the lead and the Salafi Al-Nour Party coming in second place. Ibrahim announced the final results of the party lists in Menufiya and Qena only. In Menufiya, there were 225,478 valid votes and 13,107 invalid ballots. The FJP won 121,245 followed by Al-Nour Party with 52,857. The liberal Al-Wafd Party got 20,659, Reform and Development won 17,382, Egypt's National won 9,603 and the Freedom Party got 2,039. The Democratic Peace Party garnered 1,693 votes. In Qena, the total valid votes amounted to 126,760, with 7,957 annulled. In this constituency, FJP won 42,692 votes, Al-Nour followed with 33,313 votes, Al-Wafd with 13,103, and the Egyptian Bloc with 5,545. Al-Wasat Party garnered 4,092 votes, the Arab Egyptian Union Party 9,320, the Freedom Party 15,451 and the Revolutionary Guards 5,040. Ibrahim also announced the results of the single winner seats in the 13 governorates. In Cairo's first constituency, Mahmoud Abu Al-Azaim won the professionals seat while Yasser Ramadan Mohamed won the workers seat. In the second constituency, Abdul Ghaffar Abdul Bari won the professionals seat and Tarek Morsi won the workers seat. In Alexandria's single constituency, Hussein Ali won professionals and Mohamed Tawfik workers. In Damietta, Hassan Al-Morsi won professionals and Mohamed El-Dengawy won workers. In Daqahliya, Khaled Youssef won the professionals seat in the first constituency and Safwat El-Sherbieny got the workers seat. As for the second constituency, Abdel Rahman Salem won the professionals seat and Al-Said Al-Matboly won the workers seat. In Gharbeya, Khaled Shalash won the professionals seats and Khaled Siyam, farmer, won the workers seat. Yasser Hamoud won the professionals seat in Menufiya and Reda El-Hefnawy, farmer, won the workers seat. Fayoum's professionals seat went to Hassan Youssef while the workers seat was won by Mohamed Ibrahim, farmer. In Assiut, Mohamed Sheriet won the professionals seat and Abdel Hady Abdallah won the workers seat. In Qena, one of Upper Egypt's governorates, Ezz El-Din Hassan won the professionals seat and Mohamed Hamad Mohamed won the workers seat. In the Red Sea governorate, Ahmed Abdallah Ahmed won the professionals seat and Hesham Farrag won the workers seat. As for El-Wadi El-Gedid, Raed Zahr El-Din got the professionals seat while Mohamed Aboud got the workers seat. The North Sinai governorate, saw Salem Attiya win professionals and Ahmed Abdel Rehim win workers. Meanwhile in South Sinai, Shehta Hussein won professionals and Awad Seliman won the workers.
