The joint international local mission to follow up the parliamentary elections “Egypt 2015”

The first statement for the first day of the first round run-off

Dismantling an improvised bomb in the lake and the exceptions to open committees are on schedule

Time: Tuesday, October 27, 2015

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Experts and observers, members of the joint international local mission to follow up on the parliamentary elections “Egypt 2015”, began fielding in “70” departments out of the total constituencies of the first phase of the Egyptian parliamentary elections, in order to follow up the run-off round at this stage, where 150 experts and supporters participate in the field follow-up process. International, 850 local followers in different governorates.

During the first hours of the first day of the run-off round, the mission was concerned with monitoring the aspects related to the opening of the committees and the start of the voting process, as well as monitoring the conditions surrounding the electoral process in the areas covered by the mission's work, especially in light of the wave of bad weather that affected the largest governorates of the first phase of the electoral process. And that led to the flooding of many streets and entrances to Alexandria, as well as the problems caused by this weather in a number of governorates of Upper Egypt.

The mission observed a remarkable impact of the bad weather conditions in Alexandria on the voting rates and turnout of the committees in the early hours of this morning, as many face difficulty in reaching polling stations, especially in the areas of Al-Muntazah and Muharram Bek.

On the other hand, the mission monitored the stability of insurance rates at the polling sites that were visited, and no events were detected that would affect the smoothness of the voting process and the arrival of the voters to the polling stations, while field observers in Al-Buhaira Governorate, specifically in the Mahmoudiya and Rahmaniyah constituencies, monitored the security forces dismantling a homemade bomb and placed it Unidentified persons outside the polling station at the Rahmaniyah School at around eight in the morning.

With regard to the opening of polling stations on time, the mission monitored the commitment of the vast majority of polling stations to open their doors to the voters at exactly nine in the morning, and exceptions were limited compared to the first round of elections, as a delay in opening some committees in Sohag governorate for periods ranging between 10- 45 minutes, and that was in the polling stations in Al-Nour Primary School (Committees No. 12 & 13) in the facility district, the polling station at the Haji Faqir Al-Azhari Institute in Bandar Sohag, the polling location in the Sons Salama Primary Schools complex in the facility district.

In addition, the polling station in Kafr Qandil Primary School (Committees 38/39) in Atfih District, Giza Governorate, was reported late to open the doors to voters until 9.50 a.m., as well as the polling station for Nile Primary School - Committee No. 44 in the Warraq district in the same governorate, which opened its doors to the voters. At half past nine, the polling station at Naguib Mahfouz Primary School - Committee No. 225 in Imbaba district, the mission also observed the delay in opening the polling station at the Martyr Ahmed Mohamed Kamel Bayoumi Secondary School for Girls in Nasser Center in Beni Suef until 9:30 am.

The body supervising the electoral process was present at an early date in the vast majority of the polling stations, and the delay of the committee chairperson or one of its employees was not observed in rare cases, the most prominent of which was the delay in the arrival of the judge supervising the Al-Zaytoon Elementary School Committee in the Nasser district of Beni Suef until nine o'clock Half in the morning.

With regard to voter turnout during the first two hours of polling day (9-11), it was significantly weak in Beheira and Alexandria, while the situation was relatively better in a few districts of Giza, Sohag, Beni Suef and Fayoum governorates, but in general the general features of the turnout rates It is not clear yet.