Egyptian votes counted

The Egyptians have continued casting their votes in the second day of the runoff votes for the second round of the Egyptian elections. It includes 30 constituencies for individual seats, and three for the party lists seats. The operations room at Egypt’s Ministry of Interior confirmed that the polling stations in the runoff nine governorates (Giza, Beni Sueif, Sohag, Aswan, Menoufiya, Sharqiya, Beheira, Suez and Ismailiya.) were opened at 8am until 7pm (local time), with 118 independent candidates, competing for 59 individual seats, while the voter turnout rates in the early hours of Thursday polling appeared modest. In the second round, only one candidate won outright: Mohamed Anwar Esmat El-Sadat, the chairman of the liberal Reform and Development Party (RDF), who was elected in the Tala district of the governorate of Menoufiya. The operations room at the Ministry of Interior confirmed it had not yet received any complaints or reports from the judges supervising the polling stations on the safety of ballot boxes that have been sealed yesterday after voting ended. A spokesperson in the operations room stressed the regularity of all security services at all polling stations before voting in the second and last day of the runoff of the second round of parliamentary elections. In a press statement the spokesperson said the operations room will follow up the electoral process from the start of the voting process until closing ballot boxes at seven o'clock this evening. He pointed out to the continuous coordination between the operations room at the ministry, the High Juridical Elections Commission (HJEC), the Judges Club, the State Information Service (SIS) and the Press Syndicate; in order to resolve any problem that may arise during the course of the electoral process. The source also explained that the armed forces and police personnel in charge of securing the second phase of the election had taken over the polling stations to secure the electoral process in the second phase. The security measures had started at the beginning of voting and continued during the night to ensure the safety of ballot boxes and would last until counting votes. On the other hand, the operating room to support the election in the National Council for Human Rights announced that they have received about 50 complaints on the first day of the runoff votes for the second round of the Egyptian elections via phone calls and fax letters. Meanwhile, Egyptian embassies abroad have started on Wednesday counting votes from the second round.