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Egypt's Supreme Court to Decide on Appeals against Senate Elections' Results

Election officials wearing protective face masks count ballots inside a school used as a polling station during Senate elections, Cairo, Egypt (Reuters)
Election officials wearing protective face masks count ballots inside a school used as a polling station during Senate elections, Cairo, Egypt (Reuters)
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Egypt's Supreme Court to Decide on Appeals against Senate Elections' Results

Election officials wearing protective face masks count ballots inside a school used as a polling station during Senate elections, Cairo, Egypt (Reuters)
Election officials wearing protective face masks count ballots inside a school used as a polling station during Senate elections, Cairo, Egypt (Reuters)

Egypt’s Supreme Administrative Court of the State Council will begin Saturday adjudicating appeals submitted against the elections' results of the senate, the second chamber of the Egyptian Parliament.

The National Elections Authority (NEA) announced the final results of the elections, saying 74 individual seats of the 2020 Senate elections were settled; while 26 other seats will be in in the run-off round. The National Unified List won all the seats of the closed lists.

The Supreme Administrative Court then decides on the appeals submitted by the losing candidates and those running in the run-off round during a period of ten days from August 22 to 31. The final judgments are sent to the Elections Authority.

The run-off voting round for expats will be on September 6 and 7, while the voting process inside Egypt will be on September 8 and 9.

The Authority will announce the final results and publish them no later than September 16.

About 62 million Egyptian were entitled to vote during the elections of the Senate which consists of 300 members, 100 of whom were elected by a closed list system, 100 elected by an individual system, and 100 appointed by the President.

Head of the NEA Ibrahim Lashin announced the results of the first round of the elections which took place on August 9-10 for Egyptian expatriates and August 11-12 for Egyptians inside the country.

The NEA announced that a total of 8,959 million voters have cast their ballots and the participation rate reached 14.23 percent.

The Senate was revived as part of constitutional amendments approved in a national referendum in April last year. The Senate was dropped from the constitution in 2014.

The Senate studies and proposes what it sees as a tool to consolidate democracy, support national unity, social peace, the basic values of society, supreme values, rights, freedoms and public duties, and deepen and expand the democratic system, according to the Constitution.

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‘War Ruined Me’: Lebanon’s Farmers Mourn Lost Season

This photo shows burnt agricultural fields that were hit during Israeli shelling in the southern Lebanese area of Marjeyoun, on October 30, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)
This photo shows burnt agricultural fields that were hit during Israeli shelling in the southern Lebanese area of Marjeyoun, on October 30, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)
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‘War Ruined Me’: Lebanon’s Farmers Mourn Lost Season

This photo shows burnt agricultural fields that were hit during Israeli shelling in the southern Lebanese area of Marjeyoun, on October 30, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)
This photo shows burnt agricultural fields that were hit during Israeli shelling in the southern Lebanese area of Marjeyoun, on October 30, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)

Lebanese farmer Abu Taleb briefly returned to his orchard last month to salvage an avocado harvest but ran away empty handed as soon as Israeli air raids began.

"The war broke out just before the first harvest season," said Abu Taleb, displaced from the village of Tayr Debba near the southern city Tyre.

"When I went back in mid-October, it was deserted... it was scary," said the father of two, who is now sheltering in Tripoli more than 160 kilometers to the north and asked to be identified by a pseudonym because of security concerns.

Abu Taleb said his harvesting attempt was interrupted by an Israeli raid on the neighboring town of Markaba.

He was forced back to Tripoli without the avocados he usually exports every year.

Agricultural regions in Lebanon have been caught in the crossfire since hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah ramped up in October last year, a full-scale war breaking out on September 23.

The UN's agriculture agency, FAO, said more than 1,909 hectares of farmland in south Lebanon had been damaged or left unharvested between October last year and September 28.

The conflict has also displaced more than half a million people, including farmers who abandoned their crops just when they were ready to harvest.

Hani Saad had to abandon 120 hectares of farmland in the southern region of Nabatiyeh, which is rich in citrus and avocado plantations.

"If the ceasefire takes place within a month, I can save the harvest, otherwise, the whole season is ruined," said Saad who has been displaced to the coastal city of Jounieh, north of Beirut.

When an Israeli strike sparked a fire in one of Saad's orchards, he had to pay out of his own pocket for the fuel of the fire engine that extinguished the blaze.

His employees, meanwhile, have fled. Of 32 workers, 28 have left, mainly to neighboring Syria.

- 'Worst phase' -

Israeli strikes have put at least two land crossings with Syria out of service, blocking a key export route for produce and crops.

Airlines have suspended flights to Lebanon as insurance costs soar.

This has dealt a deadly blow to agricultural exports, most of which are destined for Gulf Arab states.

Fruit exporter Chadi Kaadan said exports to the Gulf have dropped by more than 50 percent.

The supply surplus in the local market has caused prices to plummet at home, he added.

"In the end, it is the farmer who loses," said Saad who used to earn $5,000 a day before the war started. Today, he barely manages $300.

While avocados can stay on the tree for months, they are starting to run out of water following Israeli strikes on irrigation channels, Saad said.

Citrus fruits and cherimoyas have already started to fall.

"The war has ruined me. I spend my time in front of the TV waiting for a ceasefire so I can return to my livelihood," Saad told AFP.

Gaby Hage, a resident of the Christian town of Rmeish, on the border with Israel, is one of the few farmers who decided to stay in south Lebanon.

He has only been able to harvest 100 of his 350 olive trees, which were left untended for a year because of cross-border strikes.

"I took advantage of a slight lull in the fighting to pick what I could," he told AFP.

Hage said agriculture was a lifeline for the inhabitants of his town, which has been cut off by the war.

Ibrahim Tarchichi, president of the farmers' union in the Bekaa Valley, which was hit hard by the strikes, believes that agriculture in Lebanon is going through the "worst phase" of its recent history.

"I have experienced four wars, it has never been this serious," he said.