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).

Kodak Agfa Presents: A quick visit to Egypt’s North Coast in 2020

As we are starting summer, here are some vibes from 2020 summer when Kodak Agfa and family managed to take some time off and headed for the North Coast.

We headed to North Coast’s Sidi Abdel Rahman.

This is how it looks like.

This is an Egyptian beach

Yes, this beach is in Egypt and not in the Maldives. I know it sounds cliché but I will use it anyway.

But first, there was a three-day- vacation in Porto Marnia but it was more of sick leave in August where I could not swim or stay long at the beach because I had a bad ear infection whose medication made me sleepy most of the time.

“It returned back this week mildly but thank God I treated it quickly”

At Porto Marina and the other side of the lagoon Marina 

It was a good break thought and my camera accompanied me in that break.

Kodak Agfa Presents : Golden Hour photos in Marina 2020

Happy New year, this is the first Kodak Agfa post in the year 2021

This is one of the best Kodak Agfa’s photographic moments in 2020.

The Golden hour aka a late August sunset 

The golden hour in Marina Alamein in late August.

For the first time, I managed to photograph the amazing golden hour in a perfect moment. 

Coronavirus on the Nile : Egypt’s Fallen Healthcare workers in Graphs

From two weeks, Egyptian Chronicles published a small attempt to commemorate the fallen victims of Egypt’s healthcare sector since the outbreak of the coronavirus in Egypt till half September.

Thanks to aspiring journalist Moataz Weza, me and others are able to know in more details as much as we can the sacrifices of those doctors, nurses, pharmacists, technicians and workers in those 8 months.

They were not only numbers and thanks to Weza, we know more about them with their names and faces.

May Allah bless their souls and bring patience to their families.

The documentation of Weza had also huge raw data that gives us a very interesting insight when it comes to this pandemic that is reshaping the world currently.

An Egyptian doctor checking an x-Ray "AP"

We know the locations, the dates and the specializations of those victims on the front line. In a very modest attempt, I looked to this raw data to know more information about how coronavirus hit Egypt’s first medical defence line.

I know that the world is still in a tough battle with coronavirus and the more accurate information we have, we will win more ground and more lives can be saved.

Now after this attempt to have a decent and appropriate introduction, here is what I found. 

Again this information is based upon the official statements of the Egyptian Medical Syndicate, the doctors syndicates, pharmacists syndicates, news websites and victims' families on social media.

This is from the period from March where the first case of Egyptian doctor to die due to coronavirus till 15 September. 

General Information

The list documented nearly 280 healthcare workers' fatalities in Egypt. 

On 8 October 2020, Egypt has officially recorded in total 6,017 fatalities since the outbreak of the virus in the country so we are speaking about 4.65% of the fatalities here or rather 5%. 

When I checked online, I found that it is a global issue to find an accurate number of victims among healthcare workers there are official attempts thanks to unions and human rights organizations. 

According to tot the Nurses Union in the United States, more 1,700 healthcare worker passed away due to coronavirus since the outbreak of the virus till September. 

Amnesty International published an analysis in early September saying that the world recorded over 7,000 deaths among the Healthcare workers globally. It considered Egypt among the countries with the highest estimated numbers of health workers who have died from COVID-19 despite it only counted the Doctors only. 

Now to our data. 

According to the information available online, 71% of the victims are doctors followed by the pharmacists then nurses then technicians and other workers.

Coronavirus on the Nile : COVID-19 in three months in Egypt “Graphs”

I am not an expert in statistics but I know the power of numbers.

I gathered the numbers of Coronavirus in Egypt since its outbreak in February 2020 when a Chinese citizen tested positive for COVID-19.

Sensitizing the Great Pyramid of Giza
by Roger Anis

Needless to say, the real outbreak of the virus started in March with the infamous case of ASara Nile Cruise in Luxor, Upper Egypt.

In the same month, Some Egyptians who live and work in Italy returned back carrying the virus and many of those Egyptians lived in Nile Delta governorates.

They entered the country as it seems without proper medical testing.

The initial mass outbreak began in March and it grew in April but unfortunately, the real massive outbreak happened in May or rather the Holy Month of Ramadan when the government shortened the partial curfew imposed and people began to socialize as usual in the holy month.

From covering closely the cases and the official numbers day by day as they are released by the Egyptian Ministry of Health and WHO Egypt, I made this graph showing the COVID-19 daily cases and how it grows day by day since March.

I did not include the case of February but it is still counted. 

Coronavirus on the Nile : Egypt suspends study , the Coronavirus patients number jumps to 110 , Study suspended for 15 days and Matt Swider is on his way home “Updated”

There are huge developments in Egypt concerning the Coronavirus pandemic in the country.

First of Egypt’s ministry of health and World Health Organization announced Saturday evening that the number of Coronavirus patients in Egypt jumped into 110 after the registration of 17 new positive cases in the country officially.

أعلنت @mohpegypt اليوم تسجيل ١٧ حالة ايجابية جديدة لمرض كوفيد-19، والحالات هي ٣ أجانب من جنسيات مختلفة، و١٤ مصريا منهم حالة عائدة من السعودية والأخرى من الإمارات، والباقين من المخالطين للحالات الإيجابية التي تم اكتشافها والإعلان عنها مسبقًا.ليصبح مجمل الإصابات بمصر ١١٠ حالة.

— WHO Egypt (@WHOEgypt) March 14, 2020

According to the official statements, the 17 cases include 3 foreigners and 14 Egyptians.

A street in Alexandria's Sidi Bishr
street sensitized "Twitter"

The 14 Egyptians include an infected person who has returned from Saudi Arabia and another one from Emirates. It is worth mentioning that KSA suspended flights with Egypt and the UAE is said to stop issuing Visa for a couple of days according to travel agents in Egypt.

The statement added that the rest of the cases contracted the virus from previously announced cases.

We know according to official statements that among the new batch of patients,  students in 7 Egyptian schools in different areas including Zamalek, Cairo as in “City International School”, Giza, Alexandria and Sharkia.

There are some contradicting official statements concerning the students in the schools that contracted the virus. The minister of education Tarek Shawky stated earlier Saturday that there were "6 Children" that tested positive for Coronavirus in schools in "Giza, Alexandria and Sharkia" without giving further details.

On the other hand , Minister Hala Zayid on of health stated on TV that there are only "2 Children" that contracted the virus in two different schools and the "rest contracted the virus from previously registered cases".

She added that one of the patients was also a teacher and not a student.

This is the first time we know that there are confirmed and recognized cases in Alexandria and Sharkia.

So far Coronavirus has reported an outbreak in Luxor, Hurghada “Red Sea”, “Sidi Bishr” Alexandria, Zamalek and Heliopolis “Cairo”, Giza , Sharkia "Biblies: and Mansoura.

We know also two of the Egyptian cases are two ladies from Alexandria.

They contracted the virus from their brother who returned Egypt in a visit along with his Italian wife. Both their brother and their Italian sister-in-law were tested positive earlier for Coronavirus.

The two ladies live in Sidi Bishr district in Alexandria and the health directorate reportedly sensitized the streets there. They were transferred to the quarantine hospital in Alexandria, yes we are in the stage where local hospitals allocate a whole ward to quarantine Coronavirus patients if needed. 

From a couple of hours ago, Egypt’s Abdel Fattah El-Sisi issued a directive to suspend Study nationwide for two weeks “15 days” starting on Sunday, 15 March 2020

Novel Coronavirus in Egypt : Time to address anti-Asian racism "Updated

In case you do not know, Egypt’s ministry of health and the World Health Organization declared in a joint statement that the first confirmed case of the Novel Coronavirus was detected in the country on Friday.

According to the details that surfaced later, a patient is a Chinese man who arrived in Cairo from China on Thursday and was spotted at Cairo International airport.

He was taken to the quarantine hospital aka Al-Nagila General Hospital in the border governorate to stay there for two weeks or till recovery according to the procedures.

The Quarantine section at 'Cairo International airport
"AFP"

This is the first confirmed case in Africa and honestly earlier Friday I saw comic that Africa was the only Coronavirus continent and people were sharing that comic on Facebook to brag.
Here is the result of bragging.
Anyhow  I will speak now about something that bothers me.

A pharmacist in Zamalek bragged to my aunt on Friday that his pharmacy in the upscale neighborhood refuses to serve Asians !!

On the same day, I found out that Taxis and some Uber captains refuse to serve Asians for fear they turned to be Chinese.

On Saturday, I was shocked to know that a Chinese restaurant in Maadi said it explicitly that Chinese people were not allowed to dine in !!

Seen in Cairo : Transferring an obelisk "Updated"

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Zeinobia (@zeinobia) on Aug 6, 2019 at 3:35pm PDT

During its dismantling in Zamalek 

This was a photo taken last week for the attempt to transfer King Ramses II obelisk from Zamalek island to New Alamein city.

On Wednesday, the ministry of antiquities announced that the obelisk arrived in New Alamein city.

It reportedly took 20 days just to lift it from its place in the public garden named after it “Obelisk garden” and put it horizontally on a big track.

Now there is a problem regarding its weight "90 tonnes" and whether it can be carried over 15 May bridge till it reaches the desert highway 😬🙈🙈. 

This is the only time that less known the Ancient Egyptian obelisk makes headline in both social media and mainstream media.

According to the ministry of antiquities, it was decided to transfer that obelisk from its place in Zamalek because it did not attract anybody and it was hidden.

Seen in Egypt’s North Coast : New Alamein’s Dome

The New Alamein Dome 

Seen in Alamein: The Alamein Dome as installed by State-owned City Edge Developments Company to attract travelers on the highway to the new city’s Waterfront skyscrapers. “You are reading it right”

That Dome should be turned in to a colorful spectacular at night. I have not seen it, to be honest.

Updated 

It turned to be a nightclub and apart of a beach club called Seacode Beach Club. I am amazed that this Beach club and Dome Night Club are too close to the presidential palace being built there. Needles to expect that Dome Night Club and Seacode Beach club won't exist too close from the Presidential palace when it is inaugrated.

Aside from hosting official buildings like the Presidential Palace, the New Alamein is aspired to be something like the new Dubai of the Mediterranean with extremely long skyscrapers as the ancient sea has not seen such thing as far as I know.

Here is more interesting info about that project or it is known North Edge Towers.

It is being developed and sold by City Edge Developments Company, which is a partnership between the New Urban Communities authority and Housing and Development Bank.

Both are affiliated by Egypt’s Ministry of Housing and urban communities but the new company is meant to give the project more modern slickly sophisticated appeal to its potential target customers. 

Despite City Edge Developments Company is a state-owned Company technically speaking yet its official website lacks an Arabic version.

Seen in Egypt's North Coast : New Alamein Presidential Palace

New Alamein presidential palace under construction

Seen in Egypt's North Coast: The new Alamein presidential palace being constructed at the new city by the Egyptian government through private construction companies.

Overlooking the Mediterranean sea, the new city is being proposed as the new summer capital of Egypt replacing Alexandria which played that role whether officially before 1952 or unofficially afterward.

Construction started in New Alamein in 2017 but officially pre-inaugurated "if that description is right" in May 2018 by President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.

According to the official statements, the 48-Thousand-Feddans city will cost LE 2 billion and it is planned to host more than 3-million people in its early stages.

Seen in Sidi Abdel Rahman : All degrees of blue

All degrees of blue are here.
That photo was taken from a nice beach at Egypt’s NorthCoast.
Sidi Abdel Rahman beaches are one of the best-hidden secrets of Egypt and one of its lost golden opportunities to boost international tourism 

Egypt's Dabaa Nuclear Plant : Sidi Abdel Rahman is safe for now

It is just safe for the time being !!!
The Sidi Abdel Rahman beaches and its crystal baby blue water and white sand have survived for the time being a nuclear apocalypse as Putin and Sisi did not sign the final agreement of Egypt’s Nuclear power plant in Dabaa, which is a couple kilometers away from Egypt's best North Coast beaches !!

They only witnessed the signing an agreement to launch work on Egypt's first nuclear plant between the Egyptian government and Russia Rosatom despite the final contract concerning the financial as well technical details have not been signed yet.

According to Mada Masr, the Egyptian government, security bodies and State council's legislative committee have got serious concerns about the Russian offer' financially and technically but President Sisi decided to ignore all those concerns !!

It turned out the Russians made a loose ambiguous contract that did not detail for example the ways to dispose of nuclear wastes !!

The North Coast whale and the fact that we have Whales in Egypt !!

First , happy Eid
Second , I will just keep it light here in the blog before returning to serious stuff.
Now aside from the depressing economic as well diplomatic news , the major news catching the attention of Egyptians especially on Social media was about the North Coast's Whale.
Yes, a whale suddenly appeared so close to Egypt's Western North Coast and it became the talk of the town.
It started with a Facebook video uploaded on 5 July by Sherif Aly Dabbous showing what appeared to be a small size whale in one of the lagoons inside the famous upscale Marina resort
The video which was sent to Mr. Dabbous was surreal because you can hear the two men speaking in Arabic as you can hear one of them saying that the people on the other bank of the lagoon were hurling rocks at the poor creature.

I was amazed at first because I did not know that there were whales living in the Mediterranean in the first place. I have always thought that they used to come from the Indian ocean to the Red Sea.
But I was wrong, whales do live in the Mediterranean sea. The fin whale and sperm whale live in the Mediterranean and they are endangered species.
Still , I did not understand what a whale even a small size one will do in shallow waters like in Marina.
On 6 July right after Eid Prayers , Mr. Yasser Said uploaded photos and videos showing the small whale swimming closely near to the beach at "Green beach" resort , which is East of Marina resort. "8 km away from Marina"

The dagger that came from outer space

This can be the most interesting and cheerful news coming from Egypt on Wednesday aside from the fact that the EGYPTAIR MS804 black boxes' signals can be detected in the Mediterranean.

The dagger after the discovery of the tomb in Luxor
in 1922

Egyptian and Italian researchers found out that the famous dagger of King Tutankhamen with crystal rock in its end was actually made out of a meteorite.

Yes, it turned out that the blade of the famous golden dagger was made out of a meteorite according to their research published last week at Meteoritic and Planetary Science Journal.
The blade's iron was taken from the Kharga Meteorite near Marsa Matrouh governorate.
That Meteorite which I ignored that it existed in Egypt in the first place was found in May 2000.

I will use this fantastic occasion to celebrate this great discovery and post a photo I took for that dagger with a blade from outer space at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo in December.

The dagger ith the blade from outer space

The dagger looks fantastic in reality , those inlaid gem stones with gold and its golden cover itself. Just an amazing piece of art , of course the whole collection is amazing just like any other Ancient Egyptian piece of art. We are speaking about art here. Of course this gives you a hint on how kings and rulers in Egypt are treated.

I want to post the King Tutankhamen's collection photos here but the problem I can not find the best time thanks to what is going in Egypt currently.
I do not know why I have the feeling that we may see a whole episode based on that discovery on History Channel's Ancient Aliens with wild theories.

Already Ancient Aliens show promotes the wild theory that Akhenaton , Tut's father  and controversial figure in the history of Ancient Egypt was actually an alien ... or an alien-human hybrid !!

Watch This : “Siwa” by Abdel Rahman Gabr

As the weather is getting cold in Giza, I love watching video clips from summer and warm places in Egypt.
I think I will seize this opportunity and post here this wonderful video made by Abdel Rahman Gabr for his upcoming book “Faces of Egypt”.

Faces of Egypt ( Siwa ) from Abdelrahman Gabr on Vimeo.
That video was shot in Siwa oasis.
It is very beautiful video. I really love the work of Abdel Rahman Gabr
Here are some photos Gabr released online from that beautiful quiet place in Egypt.

Heavy Rains hit the country : Welcome to Water world

A new heavy rain wave has hit the country and not only Alexandria drowned earlier today once again but also we got governorates like Matrouth , Kafr El-Sheikh , Behaira , Monufia , Gharbia and Giza as recently.
The heavy rains started after the thunderstorm that started on Tuesday.
It began like that.

An amazing shot for thunder in Alexandria by Disha Hisham

It was one hell of a thunderstorm, those photos below were taken in half hour only !!

Alexandria 3rd of Nov. 5:30 PM to 6 PM pic.twitter.com/2S4IyXvcdc

— أبو نضاره (@Isma3ilMoustafa) November 3, 2015

And rains began.

Not less than 18 people were killed today across the country because of that rain wave.
Despite Alexandria is capturing all the media attention yet the situation in Behaira is far worse but there are no cameras to record what is happening there.

Kodak Agfa Presents : #Egypt’s North Coast 2014

I know this is a belated post but it is never too late to celebrate Egypt’s beautiful beaches especially in summer.

This is in Egypt for real 

I took those photos last June in early June 2014. Those photos were taken in Al Alamein, specifically at Sidi Abdel El-Rahman.
The water there is amazing there, the best beach so far in the North Coast before Matrouh.
It is worth to mention that Al Alamein will become a separate governorate in the new governors' reshuffle.
or hotels in the area of Al Alamein as well Matrouh  you can check Trip Advisor

Links and Notes 11/09/2013

• When You Kill Ten Million Africans You Aren’t Called ‘Hitler’ | Diary of a Walking Butterfly

  About the not so much heard genocide committed by Leopold II in Congo

  tags: #DWC #LN genocide racism Europe Africa Congo Belgium

• Russell Brand: we deserve more from our democratic system | Russell Brand | Comment is free | The Guardian

  Russell Brand caused controversy last week with interview on BBC about elections and democracy. He is explaining his views more.

  tags: #DWC #LN democracy change Russell Brand UK Elections

• Michael Haag: The Struggle to Preserve Egypt's Heritage

  It is not only a struggle in fact it is like war that we are losing day after day.

  tags: #DWC #LN Egypt heritage history Cairo Alexandria

• Mansour revives plan for nuclear power plant on Egyptian coast - Politics - Egypt - Ahram Online

  The history of Egypt's ill fated Nuclear power plant in Dabaa , North Coast

  tags: #DWC #LN plant power Egypt Energy Nuclear Nuke

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

#Egypt : It is New Era

Yes it is a new era as well a new restart actually. Today the head of Constitutional court Adly Mansour will swear in as interim president. He is the 8th President since 23 July coup and the second interim president Sufi Abu Taleb. We are on 12 February 2011.
I think we will need another storify Live Blog to keep with all the updates from all over the country

Huge Fire destroys #Libya Market in #Matrouh

Huge fire has destroyed Marsa Matrouh’s most famous and biggest public market “Libya Market” in Marsa Matrouh earlier this morning. The fire started at 7 AM and destroyed nearly 90% of the market that is already made of tin. 7 citizens reportedly suffered from suffocation , hopefully there are no deaths. According to early estimations primarily losses reached to LE 3 million. Economic losses are expected to be more than as news reports are speaking about the destruction of not less than 400 small shops.

Here is a video showing the fire from distance.

Here is a video showing the fire from another angle.