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Egyptians will participate in a two-day Senate election this week, but the vote is widely seen as a formality due to the dominance of a pro-government coalition.
Voting begins on Monday to fill 200 of the 300 seats in the upper house of parliament, while the remaining 100 will be appointed directly by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
A pro-government alliance, known as the “National List for Egypt,” is effectively running unopposed in the party-list portion of the vote, which accounts for 100 seats.
This coalition is led by the pro-Sisi Mostaqbal Watan (Nation’s Future) party and includes several formerly opposition parties, such as the liberal Wafd and leftist Tagamoa, which have now aligned with the ruling establishment.
Credit: Anadolu Ajansı
For the other 100 individual seats, more than 400 candidates are competing, but many of them are also affiliated with the National List, limiting the presence of genuine opposition.
The Senate, which was reinstated in 2019, holds a consultative role, but its recommendations are typically followed by the more powerful lower house.
This election comes ahead of parliamentary elections for the lower chamber in November.
Despite a “national dialogue” launched in 2022 by Sisi’s administration, rights groups say a crackdown on dissent has widened, with tens of thousands of political prisoners still in jail.
