Less than 31,000 exiled Egyptians voted for parliament

The High Elections Commission in Egypt said on Tuesday evening that a mere 30,531 exiled Egyptians voted in the first stage of the parliamentarian elections on 17 and 18 October 17, Anadolu reported.

In a press conference held at the General Information Centre in Cairo, the Head of Egypt’s Judicial Committee overseeing the elections, Ayman Abbas, said: “The Committee oversaw the election process… The number of Egyptians in exile who voted is 30,531… The valid votes are only 28,675.”

Anadolu reported that Abbas did not give details or numbers about the rate of turnout in exile, which took place across 139 diplomatic missions.

Regarding votes inside Egypt, Anadolu said that there was a very low turnout rate in most of the country’s voting centres.

It reported official, but not final, numbers as saying that the total voters in the first stage (which included north, middle and east Upper Egypt) was 24,025, including 1,048 invalid votes; while the number of voters in the West of Delta was 6,325, including 85 invalid votes.

The first stage of the elections, the Elections Commission said, included voters in 14 Egyptian governorates in addition to those Egyptians in exile. Parliamentary elections are the third milestone in the Roadmap announced by President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi following the ouster of democratically-elected Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013.