CAIRO - The second and final round in the elections for Egypt's Upper House of Parliament, the Shura Council, began Tuesday with a very low turnout in most governorates. Many people have decided not to vote in these elections, either because they don't support a certain candidate or because they don't think this Council is important. The elections, which run until today, are being held in the governorates of Aswan, Beheira, Beni Suef, Giza, Ismailiya, Kafr el-Sheikh, Luxor, Matrouh, Minya, Port Said, Qaliubiya, Sharqiya, Sohag and Suez. The end of this round, after runoffs, will mark the official conclusion of polling for Egypt's first post-Hosni Mubarak Parliament, for which elections began in late November last year. In this round, 1,477 candidates are competing for 60 party list-based seats, while 891 are running for 30 single-winner seats. Runoffs are slated to begin on February 22, according to the official Middle East News Agency (MENA). The first round of the Shura Council elections, held earlier this month in 13 governorates, showed the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) dominating the voting, followed by the Salafist Al-Nour Party. However, voter turnout in the first round of Shura Council elections was only 15 per cent, falling to a mere 6 per cent in the runoffs. Under Mubarak, the Shura Council did not play a strong role in legislating, merely reviewing draft laws and submitting recommendations on them before referring them to the more important People's Assembly. This limited role was upheld by the March 2011 Constitutional Declaration, prompting some critics to call for the dissolution of the Shura Council, which has 270 seats, two-thirds of which are elected, while the remaining third are appointed. The Shura Council and the PA are entitled to form 100-member committee that will write the new Constitution.
