Of few expats who voted in runoffs, most were young men, in Kuwait, and voting for Sohag: HEC

Only 3 percent of registered expat voters cast their ballots in the runoffs for the first round of parliamentary elections.

High Elections Commission (HEC) chief Judge Ayman Abbas broke down the details of the second round of expat voting in a televised press conference on Thursday night. He added that 97.8% of the votes were valid, while another 2.2 percent were either mistakenly or intentionally invalidated.

Runoffs in four circuits in Alexandria and Beni Suef were postponed due to judicial rulings, however, and will be conducted at a later date to be announced by the HEC, Abbas said.

Voters living abroad who are registered in the 14 governorates assigned to the first round of elections initially headed to Egyptian embassies and diplomatic missions on October 17 and 18, then again for the runoffs on October 26 and 27.

Abbas reported that 91 percent of all Egyptians abroad who voted this weekend were men, in stark contrast to voting patterns within the country, where women dominated. 

Kuwait had the highest voter turnout, with 10,321 people casting their ballots there, or 52 percent of all expats who participated in the runoffs.

There were 10 countries where no Egyptians voted at all, including Angola, Armenia, Bosnia Herzegovina, Panama, Rwanda, Madagascar, Mauritius, Nigeria, Thailand and Vietnam.

HEC spokesperson Judge Omar Marwan also gave a televised press conference on Wednesday night, in which he announced several “surprise” findings from the runoffs.

Among these surprises were the fact that most of the expat voters were relatively young, with 71 percent aged from 18-45 years old, 24 percent aged 46-60 and only 5 percent aged over 60, in another marked contrast to domestic voting patterns.

Runoffs in the town of Balyana in the southern Sohag Governorate elicited the most participation among expats, Marwan said, with Sohag attracting the highest turnout over all, according to Abbas.

The results for the 99 circuits where runoffs were held will be announced on Friday as part of the results of the domestic vote, which took place on October 27 and 28, Abbas said.

After the HEC makes that final announcement, he concluded, then any appeals and lawsuits regarding the elections results could be filed with the judiciary.