Islamist parties in Egypt have secured 83 per cent of the seats on offer in elections for representatives to sit in the Shura Council, the Egyptian parliament’s upper house.

The Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom & Justice Party (FJP) received 28 per cent of the votes and will take 105 of the 180 seats on offer in the Shura Council. The Salafist’s Al-Nour Party received a further 25 per cent of the seats. Meanwhile the liberal Al-Wafd trailed in third with just 14 seats.

The Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom & Justice Party (FJP) received 28 per cent of the votes and will take 105 of the 180 seats on offer in the Shura Council

The Shura Council is comprised of 270 members. Two-thirds of the seats are contested in elections which were carried out in two rounds. The first round was staged at the end of January with run-offs held on 5-6 February. The second stage occurred on 14-15 February with run-offs on 21-22 February.

The remaining third of the seats will be appointed by a president, once elections for that position have taken place. Presidential elections are to be held by the end of June.

Islamists secured 71 per cent of the seats in the Egyptian parliament’s lower house, the People’s Assembly, in elections held in December 2011 and January.

The FJP has 47 per cent of the seats in the People’s Assembly elections, while Al-Nour has 24 per cent. The remaining seats are held by liberal parties and parties created out of the revolution of 2011.

Turnout in the Shura Council elections was much lower than in the People’s Assembly elections. Head of the Higher Elections Commission, Abdel-Moez Ibrahim, confirmed that turnout stood at only 7.2 per cent in the run-off elections in the second round of voting for the Shura Council. Of the 24.8 million people that registered to vote, only 1.7 million voters cast their ballots.

Turnout was 37.1 per cent in the final stage of the last phase of voting for Egypt’s lower house. For the third round, turnout was 62 per cent. The turnout for the first round of People’s Assembly elections was 52 per cent, for the second round it was 65 per cent, and for the run-off for the second round, it was 43 per cent.