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444 of the 454 seats in the People's Assembly 223 seats were needed for a majority | ||||||||||||||||
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Member State of the African Union |
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Parliamentary elections were held in Egypt in three-stage elections in November and December 2005 to elect 444 of the 454 members of the People's Assembly. The elections formed the Eighth Assembly since the adoption of the 1971 Constitution. A total of 5267 candidates competed in 222 constituencies for the Assembly's 444 elected seats.[1]
They came only two months after the first multi-candidate presidential elections in Egypt's history, the previous voting procedure being by referendum. Although the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) maintained its majority and control of the Assembly with 311 seats (72%), unprecedented gains were made by the Muslim Brotherhood who took 88 seats, while the rest of the opposition took 24 seats.[2][3] Ten further seats are appointed by the president, while 12 were still undecided at the end of the final round awaiting court rulings.[3]
Further importance is attached to these elections as a party must achieve 5% of the seats in the Assembly to field a candidate in the next Egyptian presidential elections in 2011.