Senate election results: Total domination by security services

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The final results of the Senate Council elections were announced in Cairo after obtaining the results of the revote on 26 seats in 14 governorates between 68 candidates; 16 independent and 52 partisan candidates. The Nation’s Future Party swept the vast majority of the seats by securing 20. The Republican People’s Party won one seat, whereas independent candidates of security and partisan backgrounds took the remaining five seats.

According to the final results, the Nation’s Future Party affiliated to the National Security Service won the vast majority of the seats reserved for election by 77 per cent, with 154 out of 200 seats, half of which are for individual candidates and the other half is allotted to the electoral lists. The party secured 85 individual seats and 65 seats via its list.

In second place was the Republican People’s Party, one of the parties that are also close to the National Security Service, under the leadership of Businessman Ahmed Abu Hashima by winning 16 seats, five of which are individual and 11 are list seats. The most prominent of these winners was the vice president of the party Abu Hashima himself.

Al-Wafd Party came third with six seats, all of which are from those allocated for the lists, followed by the Defenders of Homeland Party belonging to the General Intelligence Service with only four seats.

Sources close to the negotiations concerning organising the elections revealed to Egypt Watch the dispute that took place between the National Security Service and the General Intelligence Service. The former considered it its right to manage the political and interior life of the country because of its experience over the past decades. The president, however, holds the latter in high esteem as it is controlled by his closest confidants; i.e., General Abbas Kamel, who is al-Sisi’s comrade, and the President’s son Mahmoud Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

This dispute resolved in favour of the National Security Service, which dominated the greatest percentage of the Senate Council seats, a situation that most likely will repeat itself in the House of Representatives elections. On the other hand, the General Intelligence Service controlled the media and youth files as evident by its managing the United Media Company that manages most media branches and the Coordinating Committee of the Parties Youth and Politicians. It also has a token representation in the political life through the Defenders of Homeland Party chaired by Lieutenant-General Fakhry Galal Haridy, aged 91 years, and his Vice-Chairman General Foad Arafa, the former Head of the Military Intelligence Service and who is considered the arm of the General Intelligence. The Defenders of Homeland Party was founded in June 2013, days before the armed forces removed the late President Mohamed Morsi, and it included a number of retired officers.

The National List formed by the services won 100 per cent of the seats allocated to the lists as three seats apiece were secured by the Unionist Party and the Modern Egypt Party, two by each of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party, the National Movement, and the Conference Party, and one seat by each of the Egyptian Freedom Party and the Reform and Development Misruna Party, whereas independent candidates won six seats.

As for the Salafi party al-Nour, it emerged empty-handed from the senate electoral race as none of its 12 candidates could win. Whilst four of its candidates entered the revote, they soon joined their colleagues who lost from the first round leaving the council’s formation devoid of the Islamic touch that al-Sisi had maintained up until that moment.

After the conclusion of the second round of the elections, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will appoint the 100 members of the council allotted by the law to the president to finish the final formation of the council. The council is formed of 300 members distributed among three thirds; the first is for the single-member electoral system, the second is for the list electoral system, and the third is by the president’s appointment.