Forthcoming Egyptian parliament is ‘illegitimate’

Egyptian law experts and politicians have described the forthcoming parliament as “illegitimate” due to the very low rate of election turnout, Almesryoon.com reported on Sunday.

The Egyptian news website reported a statement from the Elections Commission stating that the turnout rate was 1.19 per cent until noon.

Law experts and politicians expected that the turnout rate would not exceed 30 per cent and that this would raise doubts regarding the legitimacy of the forthcoming parliament, noting it would not be representing 70 per cent of the Egyptians.

Law expert Tharwat Badawi said: “Turnout in the parliamentarian elections is weak today. This makes the upcoming parliament illegal… If this rate continued till the end, where is legitimacy then?”

He expected no more than a 25 per cent turnout rate because people believe that the ballot boxes would not change anything. He noted that the Egyptian youth has not taken part in the whole process.

Hassan Naf’a, Professor of Political Sciences at Cairo University, confirmed Badawi’s remarks regarding the expected weak turnout rate, blissing this on the domination of the remnants of the National Party and on the current political and economic crises in the country.

However, Nabeel Mostafa, Professor of Law at the Police Academy, said that weak turnout rate does not affect the legitimacy of the parliament.

“We have to wait for the possible success until the end of the electoral process,” he said, noting that the participation of the army and the other sectors would be high.