Al Jazeera News :
Egyptians are voting to elect a new parliament which critics say will just replicate a “rubber-stamp” body in place since 2015 under hardline President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
In the second national elections this year, the country will be electing 568 seats out of 596 in the lower house of parliament from Saturday.
The remaining deputies will be appointed by the army general-turned-president el-Sisi, whose government has over the years silenced any serious political opposition to its rule.
More than 4,500 candidates are running as independents and on lists of party alliances. They are widely seen as backers of el-Sissi, who has been governing Egypt since 2014.
Final results are not expected until mid-December.
Giant billboards have sprung up across the bustling capital, Cairo and elsewhere ahead of the vote that takes place on Saturday and Sunday.
And some candidates are campaigning online and have released video clips with songs to draw support.
But many of those running also stood for election five years ago in a political landscape marked by the presence of dozens of parties with little weight and influence on the ground.
The 2015 parliament was the first to come into office after the army, led by el-Sisi, deposed former leader Mohamed Morsi following widespread protests against the country’s first democratically elected civilian president.
“Parliament has become an apparatus attached to the executive authority with no real legislative authority,” said Hassan Nafaa, a political science professor at Cairo University.
“It has almost never questioned any of the government’s policies or carried out any of the functions that parliaments normally do.”
Most of the candidates are fielded by a pro-government coalition led by the Mostakbal Watan party, or the “Nation’s Future Party”.
Egyptians are voting to elect a new parliament which critics say will just replicate a “rubber-stamp” body in place since 2015 under hardline President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
In the second national elections this year, the country will be electing 568 seats out of 596 in the lower house of parliament from Saturday.
The remaining deputies will be appointed by the army general-turned-president el-Sisi, whose government has over the years silenced any serious political opposition to its rule.
More than 4,500 candidates are running as independents and on lists of party alliances. They are widely seen as backers of el-Sissi, who has been governing Egypt since 2014.
Final results are not expected until mid-December.
Giant billboards have sprung up across the bustling capital, Cairo and elsewhere ahead of the vote that takes place on Saturday and Sunday.
And some candidates are campaigning online and have released video clips with songs to draw support.
But many of those running also stood for election five years ago in a political landscape marked by the presence of dozens of parties with little weight and influence on the ground.
The 2015 parliament was the first to come into office after the army, led by el-Sisi, deposed former leader Mohamed Morsi following widespread protests against the country’s first democratically elected civilian president.
“Parliament has become an apparatus attached to the executive authority with no real legislative authority,” said Hassan Nafaa, a political science professor at Cairo University.
“It has almost never questioned any of the government’s policies or carried out any of the functions that parliaments normally do.”
Most of the candidates are fielded by a pro-government coalition led by the Mostakbal Watan party, or the “Nation’s Future Party”.
