The general committee for the 2025 parliamentary elections in Alexandria’s Montaza district has invalidated the ballot boxes of polling station No. 14. This followed a widely circulated video showing a candidate filming from inside the polling station, documenting that ballot boxes had been opened and emptied.
The decision was issued by the general election committee for the first constituency, based at El Nasr College in Victoria, after it accepted an appeal filed by one of the candidates.
Ahmed Fathi Abdel Karim, running on behalf of the Reform and Renaissance Party, appeared visibly shaken in his livestream from inside the Mostafa Mosharafa School polling station in the Montaza district.
Around 8 pm, while polls were still open in many parts of the governorate, he claimed he found ballot boxes opened and their contents dumped outside.
“This is 2025, under His Excellency the President!” Abdel Karim exclaimed, turning his camera toward the empty boxes. “The boxes are open, and the papers are all outside!”
As he filmed, someone hurried into the room, attempting to return the scattered ballots to the boxes, a moment Abdel Karim captured on camera.
“We are decent people who love this country,” he said, his voice trembling. “Why is this happening to us in 2025? I came to fulfil my national constitutional duty, and this is what I find? Why, Mr. President? Your sons are being trampled! A minute later, an officer came in and insulted me. What for?”
Abdel Karim later submitted a formal appeal challenging the results of the station. After reviewing the complaint, the committee nullified all votes from the box involved in the incident.
At 9:20 pm, Tamer El-Khatib, head of the National Elections Authority/NEA monitoring committee, confirmed in a video press briefing that most but not all stations had shuttered.
According to NEA rules, judges overseeing Egypt’s 5,606 polling stations must begin vote counting immediately after polls close. Individual and party-list ballots are counted separately, and all observers—including media and candidate representatives—must be allowed to witness the sealing and tallying.
Each judge is required to announce the number of registered voters, the turnout, and the votes for each candidate or list before submitting sealed envelopes with ballots and records to the general committee.
General committees then announce aggregate results and receive appeals from candidates within 24 hours, after which the NEA has another 24 hours to rule and notify complainants.
Earlier this week, the Egyptian Social Democratic Party’s monitoring unit reported multiple violations during the first phase of voting. These included campaign materials inside or near polling stations and allegations of vote-buying by pro-government candidates.
Field reporting by Al Manassa also documented irregularities across Giza. Voters were bussed en masse to polling sites in Boulaq Al-Dakrour, with artificial queues seen outside stations in Dokki and Mohandeseen.
Several young men told Al Manassa they had been forced to queue since early morning and were prevented from leaving because security personnel confiscated their national IDs. One man pleaded with an officer to retrieve his card so he could reach work by 5 pm.
Al Manassa field reporters also documented voters collecting cash payments at the campaign offices of independent candidates Gergis Lawendy and Sayed Zaghloul in exchange for voting in their favor.
Egypt’s electoral map divides districts into two types, “closed” districts, dominated by pro-government parties where most seats are uncontested, and “open” districts, where no ruling party candidates are fielded for all available seats, leaving space for independents and opposition figures.
A run-off vote for this phase is scheduled for Dec. 1–2 for Egyptians abroad and Dec. 3–4 inside Egypt.
Phase two begins for expatriates on Nov. 21–22 and for domestic voters on Nov. 24–25, covering Cairo, Qalyoubia, Dakahliya, Menoufiya, Gharbiya, Kafr El-Sheikh, Sharqiya, Damietta, Port Said, Ismailia, Suez, North Sinai, and South Sinai. The run-off will follow on Dec. 15–16 abroad and Dec. 17–18 domestically.
Egypt’s House of Representatives holds 596 seats, 284 elected individually, 284 by closed lists, and up to 28 are directly appointed by the president. Final results are expected by late December, according to the NEA timeline.
