2010 Egyptian parliamentary election
Parliamentary elections were held in Egypt in 2010. The first stage was held on 28 November 2010 and the second round was held on 5 December 2010. The election was scheduled in two stages to form the Ninth Assembly since the adoption of the 1971 Constitution. 444 ordinary seats were contested with 64 additional seats reserved for women, while the President appointed 10 members, making a total of 518 seats. Human rights groups said this was the "most fraudulent poll ever" in Egypt's history. It is considered to have been a factor in the Egyptian Revolution that occurred shortly afterwards in early 2011. Background This election follows the Muslim Brotherhood completing the five-year parliamentary term in which it held on as the largest-ever minority bloc. Electoral system The election process will run in the three stages single member plurality, with millions of registered voters in the 222 constituencies. Most of the political parties in Egypt have been advocating for a Party-list while the NPD insisted on the Single member plurality. The election is the first election were 64 additional seats reserved for women. Campaign Nomination for the poll commenced on 3 November. The Muslim Brotherhood said it would compete in the elections despite calls for a boycott. Mohammed Badie, the new chief of the party, said they would contest 30 percent of the seats. It was also termed the "best-organised counterweight to Mubarak's National Democratic Party." A former adviser to the Muslim Brotherhood, Abdel Hamid al-Ghazaly, said that while the party had brokered a deal with the governing National Democratic Party during the 2005 parliamentary election, no such deal would be agreed to this year. He also said Egyptians voted Brotherhood in 2005 to show their dissatisfaction with the ruling regime. "They weren’t necessarily fond of us. [But] we have no political life whatsoever, thanks to the regime. We can’t even be compared with the most backward countries of the world. Participation in this year’s parliamentary election is the only hope for the Muslim Brothers to get out of the predicament they are in." A Tagammu party member, Abul Ez al-Hariri, also suggested the deals that the opposition parties signed resulted in a loss of credibility and consequent inability to play an effective role in politics. "They have become advocates of the regime." Opposition groups and civil society activists issued a list of demands: Amendment of Article 76 of the Constitution to make it easier for party and independent candidates to get on the presidential ballot. Amendment of Article 77 to establish term limits for the presidency, which were removed from the Constitution in 1981. Amendment of Article 88 to restore full judicial supervision of elections. This would help tame election fraud and vote rigging, which are common in Egyptian elections. Amendment of Law 177 of 2005 in order to facilitate the formation of new political parties. Amendment of Article 179: Amendments in 2007 to Article 179 included an "anti-terrorism" measure, which allows for arbitrary arrest, searches and wiretapping without