The total spending on parliamentary election campaigns by candidates has amounted to between EGP 7bn and EGP 10bn, excluding expenditures on army and police security during elections, a report by the Cairo Centre for Economic and Strategic Studies stated on Wednesday. Centre director and researcher Abdel Moneim Al-Sayed, noted that each parliament candidate is obliged to pay EGP 4,000 for medical examinations and EGP 3,000 for elections security, adding that these costs were not necessary in past elections. The study, which is entitled "The next parliamentary elections: burdens and challenges", took a closer look into the country's economic and political scene and analysed the aspects of the elections. The parliamentary elections are believed to be the third and final step of the current regime's roadmap, which was announced following the removal of former president Mohamed Morsi on 3 July, 2013. The study mentioned that Egypt suffered major economic losses due to the absence of the parliament, with Al-Sayed saying that Arab and foreign investors were hesitant to invest in Egypt due to the absence of the parliament. The elections are divided into two stages, and are set to begin on 21 March and end early May in case of a second round-up poll. These will be the second parliamentary elections since the 2011 uprising against former president Hosni Mubarak, and the first since the ouster of Morsi in 2013. Islamists won the majority of seats in the 2011-2012 parliamentary elections, but the parliament was dissolved in June 2012 upon a court order, which considered the elections law unconstitutional.
