Parliament 2025 elections: A quick guide

Here is a quick fact box about the first stage parliamentary elections in Egypt that will kick off on Monday.

Domestic voting will take place in two phases, on 10–11 and 24–25 November 2025, to determine the composition of the 596-seat chamber, divided almost evenly between 284 individual seats and 284 filled through the absolute closed party-list system, with an additional 28 members appointed by presidential decree.

10,893 polling stations will be set up — 5,606 for the first phase and 5,287 for the second — under the supervision of 9,600 judges from the Administrative and State Councils.

The first phase will cover 14 governorates — Giza, Beni Suef, Fayoum, Minya, Assiut, New Valley, Sohag, Qena, Luxor, Aswan, Red Sea, Alexandria, Beheira, and Marsa Matrouh — with 284 seats contested.

The remaining governorates will take part in the second phase on 24-25 November in 13 governorates —Cairo, Qalyubia, Dakahlia, Monufia, Sharqia, Gharbia, Kafr el-Sheikh, Damietta, Port Said, Ismailia, Suez, North Sinai, and South Sinai.

Four coalition lists — the Popular List, Your Voice for Egypt List, Call of Egypt List, and Generation List — were disqualified for failing to meet the legal and procedural requirements set by the National Election Authority (NEA).

As a result, the National Unified List for Egypt was the only coalition list approved to contest all four designated electoral constituencies.

This means that 284 seats have been filled via the absolute closed party list systems already, without elections technically.

This means that 284 seats have already been filled through the absolutely closed party-list system — effectively without real elections. The system has faced heavy criticism for this reason. Supporters, mostly pro-regime voices, argue that it helps ensure representation for minorities such as women and Christian Egyptians.

In reality, however, it does not.

This marks the second consecutive parliamentary election in which the coalition list has been approved.

The only difference is that the National Front Party has joined the coalition led by the Nation’s Future Party.

Egypt is divided into four party-list constituencies comprising 284 seats: Cairo and the Central and Southern Delta (102 seats); North, Central, and South Upper Egypt (102 seats); Eastern Delta (40 seats); and Western Delta (40 seats).

This is in addition to the 28 appointed by the President, thus we got So, 312 seats have already been occupied before individual elections take place.

The majority of the lower chamber is already effectively occupied before any individual voting even begins — leaving the individual seats to what can only be described as a political dogfight.

The remaining 284 seats will be contested by individual candidates across 143 constituencies.

A total of 2,597 candidates are running for individual seats nationwide, including 1,281 in the first phase and 1,316 in the second.

Now, when it comes to individual seats, political money is back in a mad way.

We began the race with a direct accusation against officials of the Homeland Defenders Party, alleging they offered a parliamentary seat in exchange for a large sum of money.

Former Party leading member in Giza, Hanan Sharshar, accused the party online of demanding a huge sum of money in exchange for a parliamentary seat, claiming that the alleged amount requested for a “parliamentary seat” was 25 million Egyptian pounds.

Sharshar and other members in the Giza branch of the Pro-regime party submitted a collective resignation of all its members, in protest against the party’s decision to nominate candidates from outside its ranks for the upcoming elections.

Then came the big surprise and accusation of the power of political money in these elections by none other than once a star of 30 June’s Tamarod movement, activist turned into an MP Mahmoud Badr.

In early October, Badr’s dad, Ismail Badr published a statement by his son declaring that he would not run on the list or individually because of the political money.

“The MP was officially notified that his name would not appear as a candidate on the National List, which was originally created to protect certain groups — youth, women, Coptic Christians, and people with special needs — from the domination of capital and financial interests over the electoral process.” The statement said, adding Upon considering a run for individual seats, despite widespread popular support for him, Badr concluded that money always holds the ultimate sway, and that the exploitation of poverty and need dominates the elections to such an extent that some spend tens or even hundreds of millions of Egyptian pounds just to secure a parliamentary seat.

“We carefully considered the matter from every angle and made our courageous decision, with pride and determination, not to participate in this election cycle. We are not facing an opponent who is easy to defeat; we are confronting political money in a poor society.” The statement said.

At the same time, we found the NEA rejected the nomination of many of the so-called opposition parties' hopefuls for allegedly breaking the rules.

Among the hopefuls were at least seven former MPs who had previously won parliamentary elections. Former MP Haitham El-Hariri of the Socialist Popular Alliance Party was among those disqualified from the race.

The NEA barred him from running in the 2025 parliamentary elections on the grounds of his military service status — an issue that had not prevented his nomination or victory in previous contests.

Other opposition candidates are running independently — true Don Quixotes in every sense.

I won’t lie. I do not know if I should vote or abstain, or boycott. 

One thing is for sure, normal people are uninterested هin the elections at all. Many people do not know that the elections will kick off on Monday, nor do they know their candidates, unlike any previous time.