Egyptian Parliamentary Elections

Photo: Al Ahram English

The second phase of the Egyptian parliamentary elections are underway. Egypt saw two days of rapid voting for the next members of parliament. Though the turnout was scarcer than expected, some Egyptians made their way down to the voting polls to voice their opinions. Local neighborhood watch group Zamalek Guardians yield tens of volunteers every election, and this time was no different. Young men and women, middle aged housewives, and grown men all get together for a few days at a time during election season to oversee, organize, and help smooth out the election process. They work up to a week before elections take place  just to make sure to facilitate the process for all voters to get the right info & reach their polls easily with no difficulties. Alongside most departments like the military, police, traffic department municipality.

Though the average number of voters to hit the Zamalek polls reaches up to 7,000 people per election, the parliamentary elections of November 2015 saw a massive surge in numbers. Just under 1,900 voiced their opinions this time around, and Zamalek Guardians officials are concerned. One concerned citizen asked why "citizens complain day in and day out about the state of the country, and yet don't show up to vote when they should."

The question remains, why haven't Egyptians taken a bigger interest in the parliamentary elections when they could prove to be a source of positive change? As of today the upscale neighborhood saw a tie between nominees Mohamed Hamouda and Mohamed Maasoud. Citizens are already complaining about both nominees, and saying that neither can get the job done, that both are not their top choices. 

And yet, despite the complaints, very very few people actually visited the polls to vote. So it seems that citizens are at a standstill. Neither do they want to vote, nor do they approve of the results, which means that no matter who is elected in the end, things wstill won't finally calm down.