by Marwa Yahya, Ma Mingliang
CAIRO, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian voters will head to polling stations on Sunday to elect a new parliament, the first since the military ousted former Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in 2013.
The long-awaited parliamentary elections will mark the final step in Egypt's roadmap to democracy, which started with drafting a new constitution and then holding a presidential election to bring Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, former army chief, to power.
THE DATES
The elections are held in two phases. Phase one will see voting from Oct. 18 to 19, with a run-off on Oct. 27-28. Results will be announced on Oct. 29-30. Phase two is scheduled for Nov. 22-23, with a run-off on Dec. 1-2 and results expected on Dec. 3-4.
Voting of Egyptian expatriates will start one day earlier in each stage.
According to the country's High Electoral Committee, 54 million Egyptians are eligible to vote in the elections, of whom 27 millions in phase one.
The vote begins at 9:00 a.m. (0700 GMT) and ends at 9:00 p.m. (1900 GMT).
Nearly 16,000 judges will supervise the process, while 87 international and local non-governmental organizations are permitted to observe the polling, according to government reports.
The elections were initially scheduled for early 2014 but then delayed on legal grounds, after the court ruled that some of the elections law items, which were related to the electoral districts division, were unconstitutional.
FORMATION, SYSTEM
The parliament will be made up of 596 seats, of which 448 seats will be elected as independents and 120 as winner-takes-all party lists. The rest 28 lawmakers will be appointed by the president.
The lists include quota from youth, women, Christians and workers.
The small parties have small chances to win seats in the upcoming parliament based on the elections law which said the party list that wins an absolute majority will take all the seats in each district.
Each 15-candidate party list must include three Christians, two workers or farmers, two youth candidates, a disabled person, and an Egyptian residing abroad. Seven of the 15 candidates must be women, as the constitution advocating equal rights for the minorities.
However, allocating 75 percent of the seats for individuals will likely make the new house vulnerable for wealthy remnants of former president Hosni Mubarak's dissolved National Democratic Party, and threatens with using capitals in affecting laws to be endorsed.
WHO HAS THE RIGHT TO VOTE?
Egyptians at or older than 18 are eligible to vote. Active personnel of the armed forces and police are exempted from exercising their voting right until they leave the service or retire. Citizens who are not allowed to vote include those convicted with a felony, those whose money has been confiscated by a court ruling, those dismissed from civil military service for disgraceful reasons and those who are suffering mental illness.
WHO CAN RUN FOR THE ELECTIONS?
Any Egyptian over the age of 25, unless their political rights have been rescinded or suspended, has the right to run in the parliamentary elections.
The country's High Electoral Committee said last month that they had accepted candidacy papers of nine lists and 5,420 individual candidates.
LISTS AND PARTIES
The now-banned Muslim Brotherhood swept the previous parliament along with ultra-conservative Salafists, but that assembly was dissolved in June 2012 even before Morsi's election as Egypt's first freely elected leader.
Egypt has been without a parliament for three years, and the Shura Council, the upper house of parliament, was abolished in the 2013 constitution.
The "For the Love of Egypt" list, which includes liberal Free Egyptians Party, Al-Wafd Party, a prominent retired army officer, former government ministers, and high-profile businessmen, openly supports President Sisi.
The Salafist Al-Nour Party is the only Islamist political party in the elections. Al-Nour won about a quarter of the vote in the country's first post-revolution parliamentary elections held in late 2011, coming the second behind the Brotherhood.
Religion-based parties are banned according to the 2014 constitution, but Al-Nour always denies its religious affiliations and defends itself as a party with religious background.
The coming parliament will be the most powerful house of representatives that Egypt will see based on the constitution which gave it unprecedented powers.
The coming parliament can withdraw confidence from the president and call for early presidential election with a request signed by the majority of its members.
