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.



Sudan’s Ruling Council Reshuffles Cabinet amid Brutal Conflict

A damaged building in Omdurman, Sudan, 01 November 2024 (issued 04 November 2024). (EPA)
A damaged building in Omdurman, Sudan, 01 November 2024 (issued 04 November 2024). (EPA)
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Sudan’s Ruling Council Reshuffles Cabinet amid Brutal Conflict

A damaged building in Omdurman, Sudan, 01 November 2024 (issued 04 November 2024). (EPA)
A damaged building in Omdurman, Sudan, 01 November 2024 (issued 04 November 2024). (EPA)

Sudan's army leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, at war with paramilitaries, has announced a cabinet reshuffle that replaces four ministers including those for foreign affairs and the media.

The late Sunday announcement comes with the northeast African country gripped by the world's worst displacement crisis, threatened by famine and desperate for aid, according to the UN.

In a post on its official Facebook page, Sudan's ruling sovereignty council said Burhan had approved replacement of the ministers of foreign affairs, the media, religious affairs and trade.

The civil war that began in April 2023 pits Burhan's military against the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitaries under the command of his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

Since then, the army-aligned Sudanese government has been operating from the eastern city of Port Sudan, which has largely remained shielded from the violence.

But the Sudanese state "is completely absent from the scene" in all sectors, economist Haitham Fathy told AFP earlier this year.

The council did not disclose reasons behind the reshuffle but it coincides with rising violence in al-Gezira, south of the capital Khartoum, and North Darfur in Sudan's far west bordering Chad.

On Friday the spokesman for United Nations chief Antonio Guterres said he condemned attacks by the RSF on Gezira, after the United States made a similar call over the violence against civilians.

Among the key government changes, Ambassador Ali Youssef al-Sharif, a retired diplomat who previously served as Sudan's ambassador to China and South Africa, was appointed foreign minister.

He replaces Hussein Awad Ali who had held the role for seven months.

Journalist and TV presenter Khalid Ali Aleisir, based in London, was named minister of culture and media.

The reshuffle also saw Omar Banfir assigned to the trade ministry and Omar Bakhit appointed to the ministry of religious affairs.

Over the past two weeks, the RSF increased attacks on civilians in Gezira following the army's announcement that an RSF commander had defected.

According to an AFP tally based on medical and activist sources, at least 200 people were killed in Gezira last month alone. The UN reports that the violence has forced around 120,000 people from their homes.

In total, Sudan hosts more than 11 million displaced people, while another 3.1 million are now sheltering beyond its borders, according to the International Organization for Migration.