Polling stations opened at 8 am Tuesday as runoff elections for the third phase of elections for Egypt's lower house of parliament began.
The elections are being held in nine governorates: Daqahlia, Gharbiya, Matrouh, Minya, New Valley, North Sinai, Qalyubiya, Qena and South Sinai. Around 12,000 judges and other judicial employees are supervising the third phase.
The Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) and Salafi-led Nour Party lists are continuing their electoral rivalry in the runoffs, with the FJP competing for 30 seats and Nour for 29.
Election are also taking place in constituencies where voting was previously canceled by court rulings. Seats being contested are: single-winner and list-based seats in Cairo's Sahel constituency, single-winner seats in Alexandria's Moharram Bek constituency, single-winner seats in Sharqiya Hesaneya constituency, single-winner seats in Assiut's Dayrout constituency, single-winner seats in Assiut's Fatah constituency and list-based seats in Aswan.
Runoffs will not take place in South Sinai or Qena's Nagaa Hammadi constituency, since two court rulings nullified elections there. However, the High Judicial Elections Commission (HJEC) has decided to re-conduct elections there on 14 and 15 January and runoffs for single-winner seats on 18 and 19 January.
The HJEC also decided to temporarily halt elections in Daqahlia's first constituency and set another date for them, according to a court ruling.
Translated from Al-Masry Al-Youm
