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Mostaqbal Watan dominates Egypt's Senate elections with sweeping win - Egypt - Al-Ahram Weekly
Official results from last week's Senate elections show that the pro-government Mostaqbal Watan (Future of the Homeland) Party has swept the polls.
Hazem Badawi, head of the National Elections Authority (NEA), announced in a press conference on Tuesday that 17.1 per cent (11.3 million) of the 69.33 million eligible voters had cast their ballots during the four-day polls in Egypt and abroad.
This is higher than the turnout for the 2020 elections when just 14 per cent of voters went to the polls and for the 2012 Shura Council elections when 12 per cent cast their ballots.
Badawi said the increase in the turnout was due to young people being keen to participate in the polls.
Ahmed Bendari, chair of the board of the NEA, said the 2025 elections came at a time when the region is facing major challenges. As a result, the military and Interior Ministry had intensified measures to secure the balloting and ensure a safe environment for citizens as they cast their votes.
Bendari said the two-day vote was held at 8,286 polling stations across the country and fully supervised by 9,500 judges, as well as 18 NEA-approved embassies, 67 local and international civil-society organisations, and 230 local and foreign media outlets.
Results from the Senate elections published and analysed by the Tahya Masr website show that of the 100 individual seats being contested in the first round, Mostaqbal Watan gained 58.
Two of Mostaqbal Watan's candidates will face a run-off on 27 and 28 August. The results will be announced on 4 September.
In second place came the Homat Al-Watan (Protectors of the Homeland) Party, which won 22 individual seats, followed by the National Front Party, which secured nine individual seats, and the People's Republican Party, which got five individual seats.
As a result, the four pro-government parties won 94 individual seats. However, six of their candidates will face a run-off.
In Cairo, Mostaqbal Watan won seven of the 10 contested individual seats, and in Alexandria it won three out of seven. The list of the party's winners in Cairo include high-profile businessmen like construction magnate Ahmed Sabbour, stockbroker Mohamed Al-Manzlawi, and industrialists Gamal Abul-Fotouh, Mohamed Halawa, and Mohamed Mazloum.
Mostaqbal Watan is a supporter of President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi's economic reform, privatisation, and anti-terrorism policies.
In the party list seats, the 100-candidate National Unified List (NUL) led by Mostaqbal Watan won uncontested. Badawi said that the list was able to secure more than the five per cent necessary to be declared the winner.
Prominent names on the list include Deputy Chairman of Mostaqbal Watan Hossam Al-Khouli, Secretary-General of Mostaqbal Watan Essam Hilal, Editor-in-Chief of the leftist Tagammu Party's newspaper Al-Ahali Amina Al-Naqash, Wafd Party Secretary-General Tarek Abdel-Aziz Al-Tohami, and prominent businessman Mohamed Al-Morshedi.
In second place after Mostaqbal Watan came the pro-government Homat Al-Watan Party, which fielded 25 individual candidates. Founded by Galal Haridi, former commander of the Egyptian Army Commandos, Homat Al-Watan won 22 individual seats.
In third place was the newly founded National Front Party, which is led by former housing minister Assem Al-Gazzar. Its 12 individual candidates won nine seats.
The pro-government People's Republican Party, which is supported by iron and steel tycoon Ahmed Abu Hashima, managed to win five seats, one each in the governorates of Cairo, Giza, Fayoum, Sharqiya, and Alexandria.
The results show that 44 of the winners on the 100-candidate NUL are affiliated with Mostaqbal Watan, 19 with Homat Al-Watan Party, 12 with the National Front, five with the People's Republican Party, five with the Egyptian Socialist Democratic Party, four with the Reform and Development Party, four with the opposition Adl (Justice) Party, two with the opposition Wafd Party, two with the leftist Tagammu Party, one with the Will of a Generation Party, one with the Freedom Party, and one with the Congress Party.
Overall results for both individual and party list seats show that Mostaqbal Watan won 102 seats (58 individual and 44 list), Homat Al-Watan 41 (19 individual and 22 list), the National Front 21 (nine individual and 12 list) and the People's Republican Party 10 (five individual and five list).
This means that the four pro-government parties secured a total of 174 seats (around 75 per cent) out of the 200 contested.
Another seven political parties got 20 seats as they were on the 100-candidate NUL which won uncontested. This means that 194 candidates managed to secure seats in the next Senate. Run-offs will be held next week to elect the remaining six candidates.
In the outgoing 2020-2025 Senate, Mostaqbal Watan had 149 seats or almost 50 per cent of the total.
The first round of the Senate elections was held on 1-2 August for Egyptian expatriates and on 4-5 August at home. A total of 424 individual candidates and one-party list were competing for 200 seats in the Senate, created as part of the constitutional amendments approved in a referendum in 2019.
The list of individual candidates included 183 independents and 241 candidates affiliated with 33 political parties. They ran in 27 districts across Egypt with each district representing an entire governorate.
The 100 candidates on the one-party list ran in four districts. Two of these (Cairo and South and Middle Delta and North and Middle and South of Upper Egypt) are allocated 74 seats (37 each), and the other two (East Delta and West Delta) are allocated 26 seats.
The new Senate, whose term is set at five years, will have 300 members. One third is elected via the individual candidacy system, one third through closed party lists, and a final third named by the president.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 14 August, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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