{"id":17149,"date":"2025-12-01T08:32:55","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T06:32:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/?p=17149"},"modified":"2026-10-24T15:02:52","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T13:02:52","slug":"2025-egypt-elections-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/2025-egypt-elections-5\/","title":{"rendered":"Egypt\u2019s Election Crisis: Annulled Results and Parliament\u2019s Legitimacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Supreme<\/span> Administrative Court<\/span><\/a> of the State Council in Egypt ruled on Saturday evening to annul the election results in 29 new districts, bringing the number of annulled districts to 48 out of a total of 70 districts in which the first-phase elections were held in 14 governorates, in what observers describe as a direct threat to the legitimacy of the entire electoral process. The proportion of districts annulled so far because of appeals and proven electoral violations stands at<\/span> about<\/span><\/a> 70% of all districts, a historic precedent in the Egyptian parliamentary record.<\/span><\/p>\n

Observers who spoke to Zawia3 believe that the decision “has put the entire election at stake, especially with the widening range of governorates whose results were annulled entirely, such as Luxor, Sohag, Qena, Assiut and New Valley, in addition to the annulment of most districts in other governorates such as Minya, Fayoum, Beheira, Giza and Alexandria.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The rapid developments come amid a wide controversy that has been raging since the two voting days on 10 and 11 November, as the electoral process was marred by accusations of manipulation, vote-buying and influencing voters, which<\/span> prompted<\/span><\/a> Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi to intervene directly, calling on the National Election Authority to carry out “thorough scrutiny” of the appeals and not to hesitate to annul the elections partially or entirely “if it proves impossible to arrive at the true will of the voters”. He later indicated that his intervention amounted to a “veto” in objection to practices with which he was not satisfied.<\/span><\/p>\n

During the two voting days of the second phase,<\/span> the Ministry of Interior announced<\/span><\/a> that it had uncovered widespread vote-buying operations and attempts to influence the course of the elections, an indication that entrenches fears of a repetition of the same violations, while the recent court rulings have reopened the debate over the fate of the elections and the future of the next parliament, amid mounting calls to reconsider the entire electoral process after the scale of the violations was exposed and widespread incidents of fraud were proven.<\/span><\/p>\n

On Sunday evening, <\/span>the National Election Authority announced<\/span><\/a> the details of the rerun of the first round of the first phase of the House of Representatives elections in 19 electoral districts, whose results had previously been annulled by a decision of the authority’s board of directors.<\/span><\/p>\n

The authority added in an official statement that all logistical and technical preparations for the voting process had been completed, noting that voting for Egyptians abroad would begin on Monday and Tuesday, while the elections inside Egypt would be held next Wednesday and Thursday, in accordance with the decision issued on 18 November this month.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Recommended reading:<\/b> A sovereign report warned of popular discontent.. what lies behind the president’s talk of electoral violations?<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n


\nDid the “National Election Authority” fail to manage the scene?<\/b><\/h1>\n

Dr Amr Hashem Rabie, deputy director of the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, stresses that what the ongoing House of Representatives elections are witnessing represents one of the most complex electoral moments in Egypt’s modern history, and that the annulment of 48 districts in one go puts the legitimacy of the next parliament to an extremely sensitive test. He insists that “the least that must be done” is to rerun the elections in the annulled districts in full, while “the best”, in his view, remains rerunning the elections in their entirety and adopting a new electoral system, after the current system has proven its inadequacy and the poor quality of its outcomes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rabie holds the National Election Authority primarily responsible for the confusion the electoral process has reached, explaining that it “is failing in this way for the first time in managing the vote”, whether by not enforcing the law on handing the counting records to the candidates, or by standing helpless before the practices of some security-backed parties, which, in his words, brings back the atmosphere of elections that were run by the Ministry of Interior in the Mubarak era. He points out, speaking to Zawia3, that the authority is repeating the mistakes of past years and insisting on non-competitive elections, especially at the level of the lists, which confines real competition to only half of the elected seats and gives the Brotherhood an opportunity to cast doubt abroad.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Rabie adds that the scale of the failures prompted President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi to intervene to stop what he described as “the slide towards a repetition of the scenes of 2010”, considering that intervention a political precedent, as the Egyptian political system has not witnessed a presidential intervention of this kind since former President Hosni Mubarak amended the list system in 1984.<\/span><\/p>\n

He stresses that one of the most dangerous phenomena manifesting itself strongly this year is the open sale of seats within the absolute lists, and some party leaders’ regarding this as “justified” under the banner of supporting the party. He asks: “How can a candidate who paid tens of millions represent the people with integrity? And how can this path create a normal party life?”.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rabie points to the sharp decline in the number of candidates compared with the 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2020 elections, considering this an indicator of low public confidence in parliament and in its ability to solve economic and social crises. He highlights the spread of the inheritance of seats within parliament and the lists, not as an extension of traditional family representation but as a favour among members of the same family, which weakens the legislative institution, especially when the seat falls vacant in favour of inexperienced substitutes.<\/span><\/p>\n

He stresses that electoral money is being used this year with unprecedented intensity, whether by avoiding spending from the official accounts or by shamelessly distributing money and ration goods in the districts, which prompted the president to warn some parties to remove their campaign advertising from the streets, after the authority failed to carry out its oversight duty.<\/span><\/p>\n

The political science professor notes that continuing the elections despite the court rulings annulling districts portends a parliament that “lacks a real basis of legitimacy”, especially if the continuation of the chamber is pushed through without a serious rerun of the annulled districts. He stresses: “A parliament built on cheating, deception and vote-buying cannot shoulder the task of amending the constitution or managing the next phase. A serious solution begins with reforming the electoral system itself and returning to the closed proportional list system as it was in 1984, because it alone is capable of reviving party life, controlling electoral money and preventing Brotherhood leaps, and of creating a parliament that serves the state, not narrow circles”.<\/span><\/p>\n

The elections are being held under a<\/span> mixed system<\/span><\/a> that combines candidacy through the list system and the individual system, as more than 2,000 candidates are competing for 284 seats allocated to the individual system, while only one list is contesting the elections at the national level, namely the \u201cNational List for Egypt\u201d, which includes 12 loyalist and opposition parties and seeks to win 284 seats, representing half of the parliament’s 568 seats, with its victory by acclamation likely if it obtains 5% of the voters’ votes.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"568<\/figure>\n

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Recommended reading:<\/b> What was not officially announced: internal messages reveal the National Election Authority’s role in the chaos of the 2025 elections<\/b><\/a>
\n<\/b><\/p>\n

What does the administrative court ruling mean?<\/b><\/h1>\n

Dr Adel Amer, a legal expert and head of the Egyptians Center for Legal and Political Studies, says that the annulment of the election results in 48 districts, by decisions of the National Election Authority and rulings of the Supreme Administrative Court, constitutes a major shift in the electoral scene and places the electoral process before complex paths that will determine the shape of the next parliament and the extent to which it enjoys legitimacy. He points out, speaking to Zawia3, that the annulment ruling means in practice that the elections in these districts are “void or suspended until they are dealt with again in accordance with what the court has decided”, which makes the current electoral process “incomplete at the national level”.<\/span><\/p>\n

Amer explains that the most likely scenario is for the competent body to redraw the districts in accordance with the court’s observations and then hold elections in the annulled districts only. He adds: “In this case, parliament is formed partially and then completed later. Parliament remains constitutionally legitimate if its quorum is complete, but the political controversy around it remains until its formation is complete”.<\/span><\/p>\n

Asked about the possibility of cancelling the elections and rerunning them entirely, Amer says that this is “unlikely” because of its political and financial cost, and would only happen if it emerged that the defects that invalidated the districts affect the entire electoral process. He stresses: “Here the process is rerun entirely, and the new parliament becomes free of any suspicion of challenge”.<\/span><\/p>\n

Amer believes that the National Election Authority or the government may resort to an appeal before the Supreme Administrative Court with a request for a stay of execution: “If the court accepts the stay of execution, the process continues as it is, and if it refuses, the annulment becomes enforceable and the districts must be rerun immediately”, according to him.<\/span><\/p>\n

Amer stresses that completing the electoral process without implementing a final ruling “puts parliament in a legal predicament”, explaining: “Not implementing an enforceable ruling opens the door to challenging the formation of parliament before the Constitutional Court, and matters may go as far as the formation being invalidated in whole or in part”. Politically, Amer believes that parliament in this case “will be subjected to widespread doubt, given that its election did not include the legally valid districts”.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/b><\/p>\n

Has the next parliament lost its legitimacy?<\/b><\/h1>\n

Human rights lawyer Halim Heneish tells Zawia3 that parliament has clearly lost its political legitimacy, which, according to him, is the legitimacy the authorities had been seeking from the outset. He adds that the authorities managed the electoral process through “deliberate engineering” by means of the proposed elections law, which focused on two main points.<\/span><\/p>\n

First, restricting the list system in a way that satisfies almost all the loyalist parties, including the parties of the \u201cavailable space\u201d, which have become an extension of pre-2011 parties such as the Wafd and Tagammu, which, as he describes it, led to “completely closing the door to the party opposition and independents” within the list system. He stresses: “Half of parliament won by acclamation because the authorities and their security agencies chose it in advance.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Second, Heneish points out that the districts of the individual system were greatly enlarged, reducing the ability of opposition or independent candidates to compete and confining the race to candidates affiliated with the authorities and financially able to undertake the huge spending required. He continues: “The authorities were betting that these candidates were capable of creating an electoral momentum that would give the process voting legitimacy, but this did not happen in practice.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Heneish believes that the struggle among these candidates affiliated with the state is what led to “the election violations reaching the President of the Republic himself”, in reference to the scale of the violations that were exposed. He adds: “What happened in the first round doubled in the second round, and the authorities did not obtain the political legitimacy they had aspired to.”<\/span><\/p>\n

He stresses that legal legitimacy alone means nothing amid the incidents of fraud and violations, pointing out that the law itself does not protect even those who report violations: “Fraud is against the law, but you can be jailed while you are on your way to file a report about it, as happened with the Conservative Party candidate, Monica Magdy and others.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Heneish considers the administrative court’s ruling annulling 29 districts in the first round “new evidence of the absence of political legitimacy of the electoral process as a whole”, stressing that low turnout rates reinforce this absence. He stresses: “This parliament will be a burden on the authorities when it comes to proving legitimacy, especially with the talk of an imminent constitutional amendment. The best and most stable solution is to rerun the elections entirely.”<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Recommended reading:<\/b> 70 million per seat: who is buying their way into Egypt’s parliament?<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n


\n<\/b><\/p>\n

What are the possible scenarios?<\/b><\/h1>\n

For his part, political and legal adviser Mahmoud El-Roby stresses that the president’s directives, the National Election Authority’s decision and the Supreme Administrative Court’s ruling annulling the voting results in this large number of districts all represent one of the most important legal and political moments in the current electoral scene. He believes that this development reflects, on the part of the state, a clear keenness to safeguard the electoral process and entrench standards of integrity, just as it reflects, on the part of the judiciary, its pivotal role in protecting the popular will. On the other hand, this opens a wide door to multiple scenarios that will have a direct impact on the formation of the next parliament and the extent to which it enjoys full legitimate cover.<\/span><\/p>\n

Regarding the possible scenarios, El-Roby says that the most likely is a rerun of the elections in the annulled districts according to an urgent timetable, with the National Authority reorganising the electoral process in the annulled districts while strengthening oversight measures and controls to prevent a repetition of the violations that led to the annulment. He points out that the success of the rerun in a disciplined and fair environment will give the next parliament full and stable legal and electoral legitimacy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Given the large number of annulled districts, El-Roby believes that the process may face logistical and time pressures, which may result in a delay or an extension of the electoral timetable. Any disruption of this kind could lead to a broad representation vacuum inside parliament if it convenes before the elections are completed in all districts, a situation that may cause political and constitutional problems later.<\/span><\/p>\n

El-Roby believes that the scale of the annulment may lead a number of political forces to believe that there is a deeper structural flaw in the electoral system, not merely procedural violations. Some may push towards a review of the entire system, whether by controlling political money, reconsidering the division of districts, or replacing the current electoral system with another. But he adds that this scenario remains difficult to implement at the present moment because of the sensitivity of the timing and the intertwining of the political and constitutional tracks.<\/span><\/p>\n

El-Roby also raises the possibility that the state will move to strengthen the guarantees in the rerun phase and in the second phase of the elections, so as to prevent a slide into a crisis of representation or successive appeals that could threaten the stability of the next parliament. In this context, the relevant agencies may tighten oversight of electoral campaigning, political money and compliance with the rules of the electoral process.<\/span><\/p>\n

From a legal standpoint, El-Roby explains that rerunning the elections in the districts that were annulled by a final court ruling gives the next parliament a clear and solid legal basis; the rerun takes place under judicial supervision and the oversight of the National Election Authority, which guarantees that the parliament whose formation is completed after the rerun will acquire full legal legitimacy that cannot be questioned.<\/span><\/p>\n

He adds that higher rates of popular participation will be a decisive element in ensuring the integrity of the electoral process, as he believes that weak turnout is the biggest factor opening the door to violations and abuses. El-Roby therefore calls for broadening citizens’ political and legal awareness and emphasising the importance of the House of Representatives in their daily lives, whether in legislation, oversight or public services.<\/span><\/p>\n

The political and legal adviser also stresses that the state has shown clear seriousness in controlling the course of the elections, and that the president’s rejection of the violations and the judiciary’s decisive intervention reflect an institutional desire to protect the democratic process. Hence the ball is now, as he says, in the citizens’ court, to participate effectively, choose their true representatives and express their will in a way that restores confidence in the political and parliamentary scene.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/b><\/p>\n

A struggle bigger than parliament!<\/b><\/h1>\n

Akram Ismail, a founding member of the Bread and Freedom Party (under formation), believes that the current situation, following the annulment of the results of 48 out of 70 districts in the first phase of the parliamentary elections, reflects a state of deep dysfunction within Egypt’s electoral and political system, pointing out that the legitimacy of any parliament in Egypt has historically not been genuinely derived from the people, but has often been influenced by internal struggles between the wings of the regime, and what is happening now is no exception. He adds: “There is a major struggle within the regime, and these disputes directly affect the ability of the responsible agencies to manage the electoral process smoothly and successfully”.<\/span><\/p>\n

Regarding the impact of this crisis on the next parliament, Ismail points out that the next parliament, even if it continues, will be of limited effectiveness, because the current political scene is bigger than parliament itself and reveals the weakness of the current regime in containing the electoral process and managing it coherently. He says: “Parliament has no real weight in the process, and what is happening is much bigger than it”.<\/span><\/p>\n

He notes that the current conflicts between the state institutions concerned with the elections, including the National Election Authority and the administrative courts, have revealed major contradictions in the management of the electoral process and have brought the weakness of Egypt’s political system back to the fore, explaining that this confronts public opinion with legitimate questions about the regime’s ability to complete the elections fairly and effectively.<\/span><\/p>\n

He also stresses that the current crisis is not merely a parliamentary matter but reflects wider conflicts within the political system, which make any assessment of the next parliament dependent on a deeper understanding of the challenges facing the management of the state itself.<\/span><\/p>\n

The<\/span> National Election <\/span><\/a>Authority had annulled the results of the House of Representatives elections in 19 individual-seat districts out of the 70 districts in which elections were held during the first phase, after detecting what the authority described as \u201c<\/span>fundamental defects<\/span><\/a>\u201d that affected the integrity of the voting and counting processes. <\/span><\/p>\n

The decision, announced by the authority’s chairman, Counsellor Hazem Badawy, at a press conference, covered districts that had witnessed widespread electoral breaches or inconsistencies in the vote tally records that undermined the integrity of the electoral process.<\/span><\/p>\n

The incidents that warranted the annulment included campaigning breaches in front of polling stations and the failure to hand over the tally records to the candidates or their agents, as well as a noticeable disparity between the figures of the sub-committees and the general committees, violations that the authority considered sufficient to vitiate the integrity of the result in the annulled districts. On the other hand, Counsellor Ahmed Bendary, director of the National Election Authority’s executive body, stressed in <\/span>statements he made<\/span><\/a> that the authority had not detected any incidents of financial bribery by any candidate, but that investigations were continuing into the violations detected in the 19 districts, and that their results would be announced as soon as they were completed.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pursuant to Article 54 of the<\/span> Law on the Exercise of Political Rights<\/span><\/a>, the decision was issued to annul the individual-seat elections in these districts completely and to set a new date for voting in early December, inside and outside Egypt.<\/span><\/p>\n

Imbaba in Giza Governorate topped the list of annulled districts; it is the district in which former MP Nashwa El-Deeb announced her withdrawal from the race shortly after voting began, <\/span>in protest<\/span><\/a> at what she described as the absence of guarantees of integrity and the presence of a security candidate in the district. The results of four districts in Qena Governorate and seven districts in Sohag Governorate in southern Upper Egypt were also annulled, as well as two districts in Fayoum Governorate, one district in Assiut Governorate and a district in Alexandria Governorate, in addition to three districts in Beheira Governorate.<\/span><\/p>\n

This step came after President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi <\/span>called on<\/span><\/a> the National Election Authority to scrutinise the events witnessed in some of the districts in which individual seats were contested during the first phase, and to annul the results of this phase \u201cin whole or in part\u201d if it proved impossible \u201cto arrive at the true will of the voters\u201d, one day before the announcement of the official results. <\/span>El-Sisi also urged <\/span><\/a>the authority not to hesitate to take the appropriate decision, whether by annulling the phase entirely or by annulling the results of one or more districts, with the elections to be rerun there later, stressing that the integrity of the electoral process comes first.<\/span><\/p>\n

The first phase witnessed a number of crises that were documented in video clips and published on social media, among them the withdrawal of former MP Nashwa El-Deeb from the Imbaba district an hour after polling opened, in protest at what she described as \u201cthe absence of integrity and transparency and the seats being decided in advance for the security candidate\u201d. There was also another crisis in the Montaza district in Alexandria, after the Reform and Renaissance Party candidate Ahmed Fathy Abdel Karim appealed to the president following<\/span> the discovery that <\/span><\/a>a number of ballot boxes had been opened inside the Mostafa Mosharafa School polling station and emptied of ballot papers before the time set for counting, in an incident he considered evidence of possible tampering with the boxes.<\/span><\/p>\n

In light of these developments, the next parliament appears to face serious challenges in restoring its political and legal legitimacy, amid the persistence of the violations and abuses witnessed in the first phase of the elections. The annulment of the results of 48 out of 70 districts reflects the fragility of the current electoral system and places the future of the chamber under major question marks, both in terms of popular trust and of parliament’s ability to perform its legislative and oversight functions.<\/span><\/p>\n

Experts point out that the most serious and stable solution lies in rerunning the elections in the annulled districts, while strengthening oversight and applying strict controls to prevent a repetition of the violations, and perhaps reviewing the electoral system itself to ensure the integrity of electoral competition. In the absence of these measures, the next parliament will remain merely a body of limited effectiveness, facing wide criticism over its credibility and legitimacy, which makes the primary task of any subsequent government or chamber to restore citizens’ trust and reform the electoral system entirely, to ensure genuine and effective representation of the Egyptian people.<\/span><\/p>\n

Editorial correction: The first version of the report mentioned the name “General Elections Authority”; the correct name is “National Election Authority”, which is the body responsible for managing elections in Egypt, as stated in the rest of the report.<\/em><\/p>\n

Editorial correction: The first version of the report attributed the annulment of the election results in 48 districts to the administrative court’s ruling; in fact, the National Election Authority annulled the results in 19 districts, and the Supreme Administrative Court annulled them in 29 other districts.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The elections for Egypt’s House of Representatives took an unprecedented turn after the Supreme Administrative Court ruled on Saturday evening to annul the election results in 29 new districts, raising the total number of annulled districts to 48 out of 70 districts<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":19412,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[412],"tags":[],"kateb":[6247],"class_list":["post-17149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics-en","kateb-rasha-ammar"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/election-results-annulled-2025.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17149"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24042,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17149\/revisions\/24042"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17149"},{"taxonomy":"kateb","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kateb?post=17149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}