Egypt in political soul-searching mode after El Sisi calls out voting irregularities

President Abdel Fattah El Sisi had good advice for Egypt's 70 million voters: Don't sell your vote!

If you do, Mr El Sisi's said, you are empowering someone who is not good, making him your voice and placing the welfare of your country in his trust.

The Egyptian leader's counsel was delivered in televised comments just days after a November 17 social media post in which he called out the National Elections Authority for not taking action on irregularities in the first round of parliamentary elections.

The president's intervention unleashed a political storm unprecedented during his 11 years in charge of the country of 108 million.

His action was widely lauded by the pro-government media as a masterstroke that put a stop to unbridled electoral fraud, under a system widely suspected to be orchestrated by security agencies and police keen on ensuring the next parliament is fully on board with government policies.

The president's action also appears to have broadened the relatively narrow margin of freedom of expression, allowing critics to air their views on the electoral process and how the country has been run.

A voter casts her ballot at a polling station in Giza. AFP

So far, the results of elections in 47 constituencies – well over half of those contested in the first round of the two-stage vote – have been voided and more are expected to follow.

There are also growing calls for the cancellation of the entire election. Concerns have been raised about the fairness of the electoral law that allows pro-government “closed lists” of candidates to win without a real contest.

Moreover, and perhaps more significantly, a conversation has begun on social media and in relatively independent segments of the media about how the electoral debacle has laid bare the need for far-reaching political reform. This is a nation that has barely seen genuine democratic rule since independence from Britain and the abolition of the monarchy in the 1950s.

New elections?

Questions remain over whether Mr El Sisi's intervention to cal