EGYPT-ELECTION/SECURITY Security forces guard polling station in Giza

Record ID: 135941

  • Title: EGYPT-ELECTION/SECURITY Security forces guard polling station in Giza
  • Date: 18th October 2015
  • Summary: GIZA, EGYPT (OCTOBER 18, 2015) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF SECURITY GUARDS OUTSIDE POLLING STATION IN GIZA VARIOUS OF SIGN READING (English and Arabic): "Giza Traffic" / SECURITY GUARDS OUTSIDE POLLING STATION VARIOUS OF SECURITY GUARDS OUTSIDE POLLING STATION RIFLE SIGN READING (English and Arabic): "Giza Traffic" VARIOUS OF SECURITY GUARDS OUTSIDE POLLING STATION
  • Embargoed: 2nd November 2015 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Egypt
  • Country: Egypt
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAD7Q3PGYQBTVVTLGAK1P2QUIZP
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Security forces stood guard outside polling stations in Giza on Sunday (October 18) on the first day of parliamentary elections.
    Polls opened at 0900 local time (0700GMT).
    The voting will take place over two rounds on Sunday and Monday (October 19), and then November 22 and 23, with two sets of run-offs in constituencies where no clear winner has emerged.
    Voters have been casting their ballots in 14 regions, including Egypt's second city of Alexandria on the Mediterranean coast and Giza, a province which includes parts of Cairo west of the Nile.
    In a televised speech on Saturday (October 17), President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi called on Egyptians to participate in the vote.
    The long-awaited elections are seen as the final step in a process that aims to put the country back on a democratic course, but which critics say has been undermined by state repression.
    Independent monitoring of the elections is expected to be limited because of pressure from the government on non-governmental organisations and civil society groups.
    Egypt has been without a parliament since June 2012 when a court dissolved the democratically elected main chamber, then dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood, reversing a major accomplishment of the 2011 uprising that ended Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule.
    As army chief, Sisi ousted elected President Mohamed Mursi of the Brotherhood the following year, banning Egypt's oldest Islamist movement, and jailing thousands of its members alongside the youth activists at the forefront of the 2011 revolt. Sisi went on to win a presidential vote in June last year.
    The Brotherhood is banned and not taking part in the latest polls and smaller opposition parties are struggling to make their voices heard.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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