Urgent| The internal voting process begins on the first day of the House of Representatives elections
At nine o’clock this morning, the polling committees began their work to receive voters wishing to cast their votes in the first phase of the House of Representatives elections, which are being conducted under the supervision of judicial body advisors, and will continue for two consecutive days amid follow-up by various civil society organizations and local and international media.
The first phase of the electoral process includes 14 governorates: Giza, Fayoum, Beni Suef, Minya, and Assiut. And the New Valley, Sohag, Qena, Luxor, Aswan, the Red Sea, Alexandria, Beheira and Marsa Matrouh.
The number of voters who are eligible to cast their votes in the first stage of the House of Representatives elections is 35 million and 279 thousand and 922 voters, distributed among 5,606 subcommittees within 70 electoral districts, while 1,281 candidates are competing for seats in this stage. Individuals, and one electoral list in the West Delta sector, and the Central, South and North Upper Egypt sectors, for the seats allocated to the electoral list system.
The advisors of the State Issues Authority and the Administrative Prosecution Authority, heads of the subcommittees (ballot committees), had received the headquarters of the committees, since the early morning, and they had inspected them and ensured the availability of all requirements for conducting the electoral process, especially with regard to papers, documents, minutes of procedures, and voter lists, and they opened the boxes. The National Elections Authority was keen to provide many facilities that would facilitate Citizens, especially the elderly and people with special needs, exercise their constitutional right to vote, by designating most of the polling sub-committees on the ground floors of the electoral centers, and providing the centers with information panels that include a quick response code (QR code) so that the voter can photograph them to obtain additional information regarding voting controls and mechanisms, in addition to awareness-raising materials on the mechanisms for expressing opinion, in order to facilitate the voting process.
The National Elections Authority also provided a card with a card. Voting in the sign alphabet, in order to enhance the knowledge of people with hearing disabilities about the electoral process, in addition to having a Braille card. Designed for people with visual disabilities, it includes electoral instructions that facilitate the voting process for them, as well as placing a note on each ballot card about the number of seats required to be chosen in each electoral district, to enable citizens to cast the electoral vote correctly, and so that the electoral vote is not invalidated if a number less or more than the required number is chosen.
The electoral process is carried out under the follow-up of the missions of many international organizations, most notably: the League of Arab States, the African Union, The Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the Arab Organization for Electoral Administrations, and the Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly, in addition to local civil society organizations and local, Arab and international media.
