CAIRO - Voters in the third and final phase of Egypt's People's Assembly (PA [Lower House of Parliament]) elections on Wednesday cast their ballots, ending the voting in eight governorates of Qaliubia, Daqahlia, Gharbia, Qena, Menya, Mersa Matrouh, North Sinai and New Valley. The parliamentary elections, which started on November 28, were held in three regional stages. The elections will resume on January 14 and 15 in some constituencies in which polls have been cancelled due to violations committed by some parties, with runoffs on January 18 and 19. About 15 million citizens were eligible to vote in the third round. The final results will be announced by the Higher Elections Commission (HEC), the head of the HEC said. Two Islamists parties (the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party [FJP] and the Salafist Al-Nur Party) are leading the results in the elections, having won more than 60 per cent of the seats. The FJP have won the largest share of seats in the Lower House elections, taking nearly 35 per cent of the vote, with the more conservative, Al-Nur Party coming a close second behind them. Despite the low turnout in the last stage, the general turnout over the three stages hit 60 per cent, according to the Central Authority for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS). “Such a high turnout is a promising start for political practice,” said Abu Bakr el-Gendi, the head of CAPMAS. “The total number of eligible voters in the PA and Shura Council [Upper House of Parliament] comes to about 50 million,” el-Gendi was quoted by the official Middle East News Agency (MENA) yesterday as saying. “CAPMAS is independent, unaffected by politics,” he stressed, adding that they are now working efficiently. The first session of the PA will be held on January 23, in order to pick the Speaker, his deputies and committees, while the two-stage Shura Council will kick off on January 29. The newly elected Parliament is tasked with drafting the nation's first post-Mubarak Constitution, which will then go to a national referendum for approval.
