{"id":10844,"date":"2026-01-15T14:26:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T14:26:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ecwronline.org\/?p=10844"},"modified":"2026-01-15T14:31:36","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T14:31:36","slug":"ecwr-releases-2025-house-of-representatives-elections-report-women-account-for-only-10-8-of-candidates-in-individual-races-and-main-electoral-lists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ecwronline.org\/?p=10844","title":{"rendered":"ECWR Releases 2025 House of Representatives Elections Report:  Women Account for Only 10.8% of Candidates in Individual Races and Main Electoral Lists"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wpb-content-wrapper\"><p>[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=&#8221;&#8221; el_class=&#8221;force-left &#8220;]<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Cairo, 9 November 2025<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">As part of its ongoing monitoring of parliamentary elections from a gender perspective, the Egyptian Center for Women\u2019s Rights (ECWR) has issued its new analytical report titled: \u201c<em>2025 House of Representatives Elections: Where Do Women Stand on the Map of Candidacies Under the Individual System and the List System?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The report presents a gender prospective of the candidacy landscape, emphasizing that women\u2019s presence remains confined to a largely symbolic commitment to the minimum required representation.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The total number of female candidates reached 315, out of 2,904 candidates running for individual seats and on the main electoral lists, representing 10.8% of all candidates.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>The Challenge of Individual Seats: Male Dominance and Weak Party Support<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The analysis shows that candidacy for individual seats remains the area with the lowest level of women\u2019s representation:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>Women\u2019s representation:<\/strong> Women accounted for only 6.6% (173 female candidates) out of a total of 2,620 candidates running for individual seats.<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>Independent candidacy:<\/strong> The vast majority of female candidates (134 women) ran as independents, compared to only 39 women who received support from political parties.<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\">Party support:\n<ul>\n<li>37 political parties supported male candidates for individual seats.<\/li>\n<li>Only 20 parties supported female candidates for individual seats.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>Complete absence:<\/strong> Five governorates saw no female candidates running for individual seats: Red Sea, Port Said, North Sinai, South Sinai, and Luxor.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The following figure illustrates the total number of female candidates running for individual seats and their party affiliations.<\/p>\n<p><strong><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-10845 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ecwronline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Chart.jpg?resize=583%2C323&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"583\" height=\"323\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ecwronline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Chart.jpg?resize=300%2C166&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ecwronline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Chart.jpg?resize=215%2C120&amp;ssl=1 215w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ecwronline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Chart.jpg?w=690&amp;ssl=1 690w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 583px) 100vw, 583px\" \/><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>The Lists Dilemma: Between Legal Text and the Spirit of Empowerment<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The report observed that the National List for Egypt\u2014the only list running for the elections\u2014has adhered to the legal minimum required for nominating women without exceeding it, raising questions about the real priority given to women\u2019s empowerment:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\">Legal minimum vs. reality: The number of women candidates on the main lists reached 142 women out of a total of 284 candidates, reflecting a largely formal compliance with the legal text that mandates a specific quota for women.<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: left;\">High representation of women in reserve lists: By contrast, the reserve lists included 164 women out of 284 candidates, confirming the availability of qualified female cadres within the participating political parties.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">ECWR emphasizes that limiting nominations to the legal minimum on the main list, despite the surplus of qualified women on the reserve lists, highlights the problem of political parties merely responding formally to the law. This approach raises a fundamental question about the extent to which political forces are genuinely committed to going beyond the minimum and placing women\u2019s competencies in the main competitive arena.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\" data-start=\"441\" data-end=\"844\">Nehad Abuelkomsan, ECWR\u2019s Chairwoman, believes that while the law has proven capable of enforcing formal representation standards through the list system, real representation and genuine competition continue to face major challenges in individual seats. She adds that party support for women in the competitive field remains limited and geographically imbalanced.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\" data-start=\"846\" data-end=\"903\" data-is-last-node=\"\" data-is-only-node=\"\">To view the full Arabic report, please click <a href=\"https:\/\/ecwronline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/%D8%AA%D9%82%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%B1-%D8%A7%D9%86%D8%AA%D8%AE%D8%A7%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D9%85%D8%AC%D9%84%D8%B3-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%86%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%A8-2025-%D9%81%D8%AA%D8%B1%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AA%D8%B1%D8%B4%D8%AD.pdf\">here<\/a><\/p>\n<p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=&#8221;&#8221; el_class=&#8221;force-left &#8220;] Cairo, 9 November 2025 As part of its ongoing monitoring of parliamentary elections from a gender perspective, the Egyptian Center for Women\u2019s Rights (ECWR) has issued its new analytical report titled: \u201c2025 House of Representatives Elections: Where Do Women Stand on the Map of Candidacies Under the Individual System and the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":10320,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1499],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-release"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ecwronline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/ecwrlogo-good-quility.jpg?fit=480%2C480&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ecwronline.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ecwronline.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ecwronline.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ecwronline.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ecwronline.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10844"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/ecwronline.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10844\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10849,"href":"https:\/\/ecwronline.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10844\/revisions\/10849"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ecwronline.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ecwronline.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ecwronline.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ecwronline.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}