Egypt Elects New Upper Chamber of Parliament as Heat, COVID-
Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2020 2:22 pmCAIRO - Voter turnout was mostly mixed at polling stations in the Egyptian capital Cairo, in a two-day election designed to resurrect an upper house of Parliament that was eliminated by the country's 2014 constitution.
Many Egyptians appeared less than enthusiastic about the operation, with some complaining the chamber will have little or no real power. Government supporters, however, said the body was conceived to play a mostly consultative role.
Some candidates for the new Senate spoke to voters in person to get out the vote, while billboards and banners dotted the capital's urban landscape with photos and portraits of rival candidates. Most people went about business as usual amid the summer heat, with some telling VOA they planned to vote before polls closed Wednesday night.
Government officials, including the president, prime minister and other top officials, were filmed Tuesday casting their ballots, on the first day of voting. More than 14,000 judges have been posted at polling stations across the country to supervise the election, while police and military have been deployed in strategic places to ensure voting takes place in relative safety.
Egyptian political sociologist Said Sadek tells VOA that Egypt "historically had a senate until 1952," when the monarchy was overthrown. President Anwar Sadat, he notes, "copied the U.S. Senate, after a visit to Washington in 1980, calling it the Majlis al Shura (Consultative Council)."
"The body officially played an advisory role to Parliament, while in practice rewarding loyalists with a post,” Sadek argues. “The 2011 election got rid of it for being a waste of money. Historically, turnout has been low for the Shura Council or Senate."
Sadek said, "The summer heat and COVID19 will make for a low turnout" this time around, too.
People wait to cast their votes as they queue while keeping social distance outside a polling station during the second day of Egypt's Senate elections in Cairo, Aug. 12, 2020.
Ahmed Gad, a former member of Parliament under Islamist President Mohamed Morsi from 2011 to 2014, told Arab media the new Senate will be a "carbon copy" of former President Hosni Mubarak's Shura Council.
Gad said the upper chamber of Parliament was abolished in 2014 because it was a source of political spoils and a drain on government resources, and now the old system is being restored.
Nearly 800 candidates are vying for 100 seats to be chosen directly in the new 300-member senate. Almost 100 candidates alone are vying for 10 seats in Cairo. A second bloc of 100 seats will be apportioned to competing political parties, while the final 100 seats will be chosen by President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi.
Dr. Paul Sullivan, a professor at the U.S. National Defense University, tells VOA he "hopes and wishes that Egypt's new upper house of Parliament can move it forward to a better future."
"Egypt needs to accomplish much in order to reach its undeniable great potential," he argues.
Preparations to sterilize polling stations due to COVID-19 did not appear to have a negative impact on voting, with efforts to make the voting process safe apparently successful.
Election supervisors wore masks and surgical gloves, while workers sprayed polling stations at regular intervals, and distributed hand sanitizer to kill potential germs left on ballot boxes.