Egypt: 19 female candidates compete in runoff elections

The Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights (ECWR) said women competed strongly in various constituencies in the second phase of parliamentary elections.

The centre said that 19 female candidates are competing in the run-off elections, where Cairo, Sharqeya and Daqahleya had the most female candidates.

The preliminary results of elections revealed that five women are entering the run-offs in Helwan, Masara, Nasr City and Heliopolis. The centre said the competing women are Manal Khalifa, Dina Abdul Aziz, Fatma Naaot, Susan Fawzi and May Gaballah.

In Sharqeya, women achieved a high number of votes in the second phase, where four women are joining the run-off.

Director of ECWR Nehad Abu El-Komsan said women are entering the next parliament, as 19 women are in the runoff phase, a bigger number than first phase runoffs, which saw eight women.

El-Komsan said women had a successful competition with men for individual seats, although women had smaller budgets than men.

She said Egyptian women were masters in the election process, proving to be leaders in parliamentary election results.

There were 258 female candidates running out of 3,072 total candidates, which amounts to 8.39%, out of which 167 were independent female candidates from 2,877, which amounts to 5.8%, while 91 female candidates were on electoral lists from 195, which constitutes 46.6%

By Nourhan Elsebah

Source: www.albawaba.com/