Nour party: Egyptian elections worst in parliamentary history

The head of Egypt’s Salafist Nour party, Younes Makhyoun described the parliamentary elections as “the worst election in the history of the Egyptian parliament”.

“I believe this is one of the worst elections in the history of the Egyptian parliament, and it will remain a black spot,” Makhyoun said in a Facebook statement early yesterday.

The Nour party lost in Alexandria, its strongest power base and the birthplace of the party’s affiliated Al-Dawah Al-Salafyia party. The group only won in El-Amreya district.

The party has called for a general meeting to decide whether or not to withdraw from the elections, local media reported.

Spokesperson for the High Elections Commission, Amr Marwan, said on Wednesday that voter turnout reached 26 per cent across 14 governorates, a significant drop from the 2011 parliamentary elections, when the turnout was 59 per cent.

State television broadcasted images from almost empty polling stations as they closed at 9pm local time although the government gave public employees half a day off to encourage them to vote.

On twitter the hashtag “no one went” was trending.

Deputy Head of Egypt’s Salafist Call Yasser El-Borhamy claimed people did not want to vote because of the Muslim Brotherhood’s media campaign which encouraged Egyptians, especially young people, not to vote.

During a press conference on Monday, Egyptian Prime Minister Sharif Ismail announced that voter turnout during the first day of elections only reached 15- 16 per cent.