(Cairo, August 10th, 2020) Tomorrow, August 11, voting for the Senate elections will begin, which will last for two days, August 11 and 12, and the Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights (ECWR) has issued a statement includes the numbers and percentages of female candidates, as follows:
The total number of female candidates on individual seats and lists is 141 candidates including 91 on individual seats, 20 on the basic lists and 30 on the stand-by lists.
In 2012, the last elections for the Senate (previously the Shura Council) witnessed 396 female candidates running at the level of the Republic, which is equivalent to about 40 times compared to the Shura Council nominations for the year 2010, which amounted to only 9 women. In the 2012 elections, five women won out of a total of 180 Shura seats, representing 2.7%.
The result of the Senate elections scheduled for tomorrow will be a completely different result, as there is a quota on the constituency seats, there are 20 women out of 100 seats, and the elections will be held on the absolute closed list, meaning that the whole list will win. This guarantees that 20% of women will be in the list seats, in addition to those who will succeed on the individual districts.
This confirms the role of Quota as a positive measure in women’s representation in elections, and not leaving it to the whims of political parties, which often do not resort to nominating women.
The number of female candidates for individual seats is 91, out of a total of 786, representing 11.5%.
- 91 women are running for individual seats: 74 independents and 17 for political parties as follows:
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- 4 from the Hamat al-Watan Party, 2 from the Congress Party, 2 from the New Wafd Party, 2 from the Sons of Egypt Party, 2 from the Egyptian Liberation Party, 1 from the Egyptian Democratic Party, 1 from the National Movement Party, 1 from the Human Rights and Citizenship Party, 1 for the National Egypt Party, and 1 for the Al-Ghad Party.
- Six governorates haven’t nominated women, namely (Aswan, Red Sea, Fayoum, Marsa Matrouh, Port Said, and South Sinai).
- 9 governorates have the lowest percentage of women’s candidacy, as one woman nominated in the governorate, namely (Assiut, Ismailia, Dakahlia, Suez, Minya, New Valley, Damietta, Sohag, North Sinai)
- The governorates of Cairo and Alexandria witnessed the highest number of candidates for women, as follows: 25 women candidates in Cairo and 13 in Alexandria.
The nomination of women in the four districts on the list system reached 20 women on the Basic lists out of a total of 100 seats, representing 20%.The nomination of women on the Standby lists reached 30 women out of a total of 100 seats, which represents 30%. On the National List for Egypt (Which consists of 11 parties: the Future of the Nation Party, the Homat Watan Party, the Republican People’s Party, the Wafd Party, the Conference Party, the Egyptian National Movement Party, the Tagammu Party, the Egyptian Social Democratic Party, the Modern Egypt Party, the Egyptian Freedom Party, the Reform and Development Party)
It is worth mentioning that The Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights (ECWR) will monitor and follow up the Senate elections and its results from a gender perspective.
