Notes on recent electionsElections of the People's Assembly, Egypt 2011/12
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Background
For more than two months – from 28 November 2011 till mid-January 2012–50 million eligible Egyptian voters were called to cast their votes in the country's first parliamentary election since former president Hosni Mubarak was forced to resign on 11 February 2011 in the face of unprecedented mass protests. Up for competition were the lower house's 498 seats. The transitional period's Constitutional Declaration, passed by a public referendum in March 2011, not only made that house – The People's
The electoral system
For the past 24 years, Egypt has been applying a majoritarian run-off electoral system where candidates used to compete in 222 two-member constituencies and had to obtain 50% + 1 of votes to win. For years before the ousting of President Mubarak, the opposition had been loudly demanding a change towards a more proportional system. With the fall of the Mubarak regime, such a step was seen as inevitable before the country's founding election. The adoption of a new electoral system, however, was a
Contenders
As is typical of founding elections, both the novelty and sheer number of political parties were striking. There was also a noticeable tendency among parties to form electoral alliances enabling them to field candidates across the whole country – otherwise a relatively difficult task for many of the new parties. In general terms, two main blocs dominated the electoral scene, but each bloc was further divided within itself: Islamist forces on the one hand and secular forces on the other.
On the
Campaign
Substantive policy debate was overshadowed by a sharp religious-secular divide that has polarized politics in the country since the ousting of the former president. That dispute was fuelled during the election campaign by the introduction of a document on supra-constitutional principles by the interim government, the aim of which was to bind drafters of the future constitution to some general principles. The document emphasized that Egypt's future political system should be civil (as opposed to
Results
The election was judged by local and foreign monitors to be generally free and fair. No substantial irregularities or government interventions were reported.3 Any criticisms
Implications
According to article 56 of the Constitutional Declaration governing the country during the transition, the People's Assembly did not have the right to appoint a cabinet – this was a prerogative reserved exclusively to SCAF. Since there was no provision giving parliament the right to withdraw confidence from the cabinet either, the new balance of power within the People's Assembly was not reflected in the new government.
Overall, the election marked a huge step in the country's progress towards
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