Egypt election authority confirms parliament landslide for Sissi allies

Egypt’s election commission on Saturday confirmed final results for the country’s marathon parliamentary vote, handing President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi’s supporters an overwhelming majority in a new legislature with enough seats to change the constitution.

Final results after a 99-day vote

The National Elections Authority said the last 49 seats in the 568-member House of Representatives were decided in runoffs held in early January, capping what it described as the longest parliamentary election in modern Egyptian history. The process stretched 99 days, beginning with early rounds in November and including reruns ordered after courts and the commission annulled results in dozens of districts.

Official figures put turnout at 32.41% of nearly 70 million registered voters, underscoring limited public engagement in a contest dominated by pro-government parties and candidates.

In a televised news conference in Cairo, National Elections Authority chair Hazem Badawy said the vote was conducted under “full judicial supervision” and praised state institutions for securing polling stations and transporting ballots.

“The elections resulted in the election of 568 members, completing the formation of the House of Representatives,” Badawy said. He said complaints and appeals were examined and that results were canceled in constituencies where violations were deemed capable of affecting the integrity of the vote.

The new chamber will ultimately count 596 members, once the president appoints an additional 28 legislators—equivalent to 5% of the House—as allowed under Egyptian law.

A supermajority and the power to amend the constitution

Although the elections authority does not publish results by party, officials and political sources cited by Reuters said opposition parties and independents are expected to hold about 158 of the 568 elected seats, or roughly 28%. The rest are held by parties and independents aligned with Sissi, giving the president’s allies a supermajority large enough to approve constitutional amendments.

Egypt’s 2014 constitution, amended in 2019, requires the support of two-thirds of all House members to pass changes to the charter. Amendments can be proposed by the president or by at least one-fifth of lawmakers, and must then be put to a nationwide referendum, where a simple majority of valid votes is sufficient for adoption.

That structure gives the new parliament significant potential power on paper, even as critics say the body has operated largely as a rubber stamp since Sissi, then defense minister, led the 2013 military ouster of elected President Mohammed Morsi and later won presidential elections.

Sissi has already used the amendment process once to reshape the system. In 2019, a package of changes extended presidential terms from four to six years and inserted a special provision allowing him to extend his own mandate and seek another term, potentially remaining in office until 2030. The amendments also expanded the president’s authority over judicial appointments and further entrenched the military’s political role.

The government said those changes were necessary to stabilize the country and consolidate institutions after years of turmoil. Rights groups and some legal experts argued they undermined judicial independence and removed key safeguards intended to limit presidential tenure.

How the electoral system shapes outcomes

The latest parliamentary vote unfolded against a similar backdrop of tight control and limited competition.

Under the electoral law, half the elected seats are chosen in individual constituencies and half from closed party lists in four large districts. In the list races, any slate that wins more than half the vote in a district takes all of that district’s seats. If no list passes 50%, a runoff is held between the top two lists, and the winner takes the entire block of seats.

Analysts say that winner-takes-all system, combined with extensive security vetting of candidates and the dominance of pro-presidential parties, has allowed authorities to shape outcomes well in advance of election day.

During the 2025–26 contest, the National Elections Authority annulled results in 19 of 70 constituencies after the first round, citing legal and procedural violations. Egypt’s Supreme Administrative Court later voided outcomes in additional districts, ultimately triggering repeat voting in 47 constituencies—a highly unusual level of intervention for a national election.

Officials presented the cancellations and reruns as proof of institutional oversight. Badawy said the authority “acted wherever it appeared that violations could affect the results,” portraying the steps as part of an effort to reflect “the true will of voters.”

Rights groups allege vote-buying and managed competition

Domestic and international human rights organizations described a different reality. The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights said the parliamentary process was marred by what it called systematic vote-buying, “staged crowds” outside polling stations, and security-managed negotiations over how many seats would be allotted to favored parties and businessmen.

The group argued that the “flawed parliamentary electoral process belies the legitimacy of the elections,” and documented cases in which potential candidates alleged they had been asked to pay large sums to secure places on regime-backed lists. One prospective candidate who publicly complained about such demands was later detained on charges his lawyers said were politically motivated.

Broader political conditions further narrowed the field. Human Rights Watch has described Egypt as facing its “worst human rights crisis in decades,” citing tens of thousands of political detainees, restrictions on protests and civic groups, and prosecutions of critics on terrorism or “false news” charges.

Several prominent opposition figures have been sidelined or jailed in recent years. Ahmed Tantawy, a former lawmaker who attempted to challenge Sissi in the 2023 presidential election, is serving a prison sentence and is barred from running for office for five years under a court ruling. His allies sought to contest some individual seats but operated in a constrained environment.

Other parties faced a dilemma over whether to participate, risking legitimizing a process they considered skewed, or to boycott and leave the field entirely to pro-government forces. In the end, small opposition parties captured a minority of seats, mostly in individual races, with little capacity to influence legislation.

Economic crisis looms over the new legislature

The new parliament takes office as Egypt grapples with a severe economic crisis, including repeated currency devaluations, high inflation and cuts to subsidies under an International Monetary Fund-supported reform program. A loyal House is expected to back further cost-cutting measures, state-asset sales and major infrastructure projects championed by Sissi’s administration.

International reaction to the parliamentary results has been muted so far. Western governments and regional partners have generally criticized Egypt’s human rights record in broad terms while continuing to work closely with Sissi’s government on security, migration and economic issues.

For many Egyptians, the election’s low turnout and predictable outcome reinforced perceptions that parliament is unlikely to act as an independent check on the executive.

After nearly three months of staggered voting and legal disputes, the final shape of the House of Representatives leaves little doubt about who will set Egypt’s political course in the years ahead. With a compliant supermajority in place, the question is not whether the constitution can be rewritten again, but whether and when the leadership will decide it needs to be.