Egypt’s National Election Authority on Thursday announced it was annulling the results of the first phase of parliamentary elections in 19 electoral districts across seven governorates due to violations.
The decision was announced at a press conference by the head of the authority, Hazem Badawy, following a directive from President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Monday to investigate appeals and events that occurred during the vote.
“The authority monitored violations in 19 districts in 7 governorates, which included breaches in electoral campaigning in front of polling stations, failure to provide the candidate or their representative with a copy of the vote count, and discrepancies in the number of votes between the sub-committees and the general committees,” Badawy said.
The first phase of the elections for the House of Representatives was held on Nov. 10 and 11 in 14 of Egypt’s governorates.
“The first round of the first phase of the elections has ended, under the close supervision of the Authority, starting from the electoral campaign period through the voting process to the counting,” Badawy said. “We are all confident in the awareness of the Egyptian people and their understanding of these elections.”
On Monday, President Sisi had called on the independent election authority to be “extremely thorough” in its examination of the events and appeals.
“The Authority should not hesitate to make the right decision if it is impossible to determine the true will of the voters, whether by completely cancelling this phase of the elections, or partially cancelling it in one or more districts, with the respective elections to be held later,” Sisi said in a statement posted on his social media accounts.