Elections countdown: 16 days

Wednesday and Thursday marked the second and third days of campaigning for the first phase of parliamentary elections. Fourteen governorates in southern Egypt and the western Nile Delta will be voting for their legislative representatives this month.

A lot of candidates, but very few women

Over the past few days, six different lists have received clearance from the High Elections Comission (HEC) to run in the elections, including For the Love of Egypt, the Nour Party, the Egyptian Front and Independence Current Coalition, Egypt Awakening, Egypt's Knights and Egypt Calling.

The final qualifications for other lists are still pending as they submit the necessary paperwork. The HEC is due to issue its final decisions on Friday.

In an interview with the state-owned Middle East News Agency (MENA) on Thursday, HEC spokesperson Omar Marwan said 2,573 people were approved to run as individual candidates. Only 112 women are running as independents or as party candidates.

In the first phase of elections, voting will take place at 103 different polling stations, with a total of 5,460 polling booths, Marwan added. There will be 16,000 judges monitoring all stages of the elections.

In addition to the judges, 81 locally based civil society organizations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) will also monitor the voting, alongside six international organizations.

Parliament building gets a makeover for new MPs

Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Magdy al-Agaty told the privately owned news site Al-Bawaba on Thursday that the House of Representatives (formerly known as the People’s Assembly) is undergoing renovations in order to accommodate the increased number of members of parliament (MPs) from 508 to 596.

This increase in MPs is largely due to the recent scrapping of the Shura Council, which acted as Egypt’s upper house of parliament.

According to Agaty, the parliamentary chambers are also being modified to facilitate wheelchair accessibility for disabled MPs or visitors. The new facilities will also be fitted with devices to facilitate electronic voting, as opposed to the former voting system, which relied on the raising of hands.