At stake in this election:

• 176 seats in the Advisory Council (Majilis Al-Shura)

Description of government structure:

• Chief of State: President --- --- *
• Head of Government: Prime Minister Kamal GANZOURI
• Assembly: Egypt has a bicameral Parliament consisting of the Advisory Council (Majilis Al-Shura) with 264 seats and the People's Assembly (Majlis Al-Sha'b) with 498 seats.

* The office of president has been vacant since the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak in February 2011. Muhammad Hussein TANTAWI, head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, is Acting head of state.

Description of electoral system:

• The President is elected by absolute majority vote through a two-round system to serve a 6-year term.
• The Prime Minister is appointed by the president with the approval of the parliament.
• In the Advisory Council (Majilis Al-Shura), 176 members are elected by absolute majority vote through a two-round system to serve 6-year terms and 88 members are appointed by the president to serve 6-year terms. In the People's Assembly (Majlis Al-Sha'b), 166 members are elected by absolute majority vote through a two-round system to serve 5-year terms and 332 members are elected through a closed-list proportional representation system to serve 5-year terms.**

** In the nominal tier, every district contains two seats and electors are given two votes. At least one seat in each district is reserved for a worker or farmer. If no candidate receives an absolute majority in the first round, a second round is held one week later. This round will contain the top 4 vote-getters, provided 2 are workers and/or farmers. If the two top candidates in the first round are not workers or farmers, the top candidate is elected, while a new simple majority poll is held a week later among the top workers and farmers. PR seats are broken into 46 districts, which are based on Egypt’s 27 governorates. In the nominal tier of seats, 166 members are divided into 83 districts. The threshold for entering parliament is .05%.

Main parties in the electoral race:

• Party: Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) / زب الحرية والعدالة‎ , Ḥizb al-ḥurriya wa al-’adala
  • Leader: Mohamed MORSY
  • Seats won in this Advisory Council election: 105
• Party: Al Nour (Light) Party / حزب النور‎, ḥizb al-nūr
  • Leader: Emad Eddine ABDEL-GHAFFOUR
  • Seats won in this Advisory Council election: 45
• Party: New Wafd (Delegation) Party / Hizb al-Wafd al-Jadid حزب الوفد الجديد
  • Leader: Sayyid EL-BADAWI
  • Seats won in this Advisory Council election: 14
• Party: Freedom Party / حزب الحرية, Hizb al-Horreya‎
  • Leader: Mamdouh HASSAN
  • Seats won in this Advisory Council election: 3
• Bloc: Egyptian Bloc / الكتلة المصرية ‎, al-kutla al-miṣriyya
  • Leader: N/A
  • Seats won in this Advisory Council election: 8

Population and number of registered voters:

• Population: 85,660,902 (2012)
• Registered Voters: 47,192,169 (2012)

Gender Data:

·         Female Population: 42,403,053 (2012)

·         Is Egypt a signatory to CEDAW: Yes (16 July 1980)

·         Has Egypt ratified CEDAW: Yes (18 September 1981)

·         Gender Quota: Yes

·         Female candidates in this election: Yes

·         Number of Female Parliamentarians: 10 (following the 2011 elections)

·         Human Development Index Position: 108 (2014)

·         Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) Categorization: Very High (2014)

Disability Data:

·         Is Egypt a signatory to CRPD: Yes (4 April 2007)

·         Has Egypt ratified CRPD: Yes (14 April 2008)

·         Population with a disability: 12,568,145 (est.)