Egypt’s Senate elections began on Tuesday for two day nationwide amid strict precautionary measures, as poll stations opened their doors to voters under full judicial supervision.
The perimeter of the poll stations saw a heightened security presence.
The National Elections Authority set voting time from nine am to nine pm local time for Tuesday and Wednesday.
The election results will be announced and published on the official Gazette on August 19.
In the event of a re-run, the run-off elections for Egyptian expatriates will be held on September 6 and 7. Run-offs will be held locally on September 8 and 9, with the final results announced and published in the Official Gazette no later than September 16.
The National Elections Authority distributed 63 million eligible voters to 17,000 polling stations and sub-committees for the 2020 Senate elections.
Each committee will supervised by only one judge as a precautionary measure against the coronavirus.
Egypt’s House of Representatives on June 17 approved a law establishing a senate, which will function as an upper house of parliament.
The law passed with a two-thirds majority, with the objection of four MPs.
It replaces the Senate Council with the Shura Council, which was the previous name of the chamber during former President Hosni Mubarak’s era — the last time the chamber was in use.
The Senate will consist of 300 members, 100 of whom are elected by a closed list system, 100 elected by an individual system, and 100 members appointed by the President of the Republic
The term of membership in the Senate will be five years, starting from the date of its first meeting. The new assembly is to be elected during the sixty days preceding the end of its term.
The bill to establish the Shura Council, which was abolished after Mubarak was overthrown in 2011, was submitted by Abdel-Hadi al-Qasabi, the head of the Support Egypt Coalition.
