CAIRO,  Oct. 29 (Aswat Masriya) – The Supreme Electoral Commission (SEC) announced Wednesday night that the final results of the first phase of voting for the legislature will be out Friday October 30.

Two days of voting in the run-offs of phase one which covered 14 of Egypt’s 27 provinces, ended last night amid noticeable voter apathy leading to a low turnout.

Turnout in the initial round was 26.56 percent, according to SEC with 27.4 million Egyptians eligible to vote. Voting abroad attracted a mere 4.5 percent in the first round out of over 680,000 potential voters.

With only four candidates contesting single-candidate constituency seats winning an outright majority in round one, the run-offs saw polling in all but four constituencies where 418 candidates competed over 209 seats.

Preliminary results in Giza’a Agouza constituency have yielded a close win for Free Egyptians Party Ahmed Mortada Mansour, the son of controversial lawyer and head of the Zamalek Club Mortada Mansour, beating Sorbonne-educated political scientist Amr El Choubaki.

All 60 seats allocated to the party list system were snapped up by the For the Love of Egypt coalition headed by ex-military general Sameh Seif Elyazal in what seems be a prelude to a sweeping victory in phase two.

The first phase included Giza, Fayoum, Beni Suef, Minya, Assiut, New Valley, Sohag, Qena, Luxor, Aswan, Red Sea, Alexandria, Beheira and Matrouh. 

The second phase of the elections taking place at home and abroad on Nov. 21-23, will cover 13 provinces including Cairo with 27.5 million eligible voters, of which 6.8 million are in Cairo alone.