Paul Murphy
Question:877. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade his views on the recent election that took place in Egypt. [37767/15]
View answerTuesday, 3 November 2015
Questions (877)
Written answers
My Department has received reports from the European Union Expert Election Mission on the first phase of Egypt's parliamentary election.
This first phase took place on 18 - 19 October, in 14 out 27 governorates. According to the High Election Committee, 27,402,353 voters were registered to vote in these governorates at 13,485 polling stations (PS) located in 5,459 polling centres. Individual constituencies were contested by 2,548 candidates and 60 seats were contested by eight lists registered by four coalitions (six lists) and two parties (two lists). Of the individual candidates, 1666 were party non-affiliated ('independent') and 882 were registered by parties. Out-of-country voting (OCV) was held on 17 and 18 October in 139 Egyptian embassies abroad.
According to the EU Mission, the environment on the two election days was generally calm, with heavy security by police and military around the Polling Stations. Polling took place from 09.00 to 21.00 with a one hour lunch break from 14.30 to 15.30.
At the time of reply, my Department has received no reports on the conduct of the second round of voting. I do not propose to comment on the elections as this would be inappropriate while the process is still ongoing.