Parliamentary elections and the future of the political system in Egypt

Abstract

Egypt's recent parliamentary elections held from 17 October to 2 December 2015 took place at the end of an unsettled transitional period in the country that lasted for almost five years since the January 2011 revolt ousted the almost 30-year-old Hosni Mubarak regime. This paper discusses the road to these recent parliamentary elections that began with the ‘Corrective Revolution’, ‘road map’ and constitution of 2013. General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi's victory in the presidential elections of 2014 was followed by controversial legislation, unnatural political alliances, and a troubled and unfavourable political environment for holding the parliamentary elections. The paper examines some of the candidates in these parliamentary elections and the absence of the Muslim Brotherhood as well as the election results and the parliament they produced, concluding with the repercussions for the future of the political system.