This chapter examines Egypt’s electoral trajectory since the 2011 Arab Uprisings and shows how electoral authoritarianism consolidated under President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. The brief opening after 2011 gave way, following the 2013 military coup, to contests that retain procedural form while narrowing choice. Presidential elections in 2014, 2018, and 2023 have entrenched incumbency rather than enable alternation. Reforms to electoral law and district boundaries (constituencies) have favoured individual candidacies and regime-aligned parties, weakening party organisation and limiting competitive entry. The chapter traces how legal frameworks, constitutional amendments, coercive pressures, and electoral engineering project legitimacy to domestic and external audiences. Since 2015, parliamentary cycles have reinforced pro-regime dominance, including through districting (constituency delimitation) and patronage networks organised around Mostaqbal Watan. Quotas have expanded descriptive representation for women and selected groups, yet influence remains constrained by elite control and restricted civic space. Economic performance and high-visibility projects supply a vocabulary of progress, but inequality, youth unemployment, and renewed inflation strain credibility. External support, alonside sustained repression of civil society has further stabilised the system. The chapter concludes that elections in contemporary Egypt function primarily as instruments of controlled participation, and it outlines the institutional conditions under which representation could become meaningful again.

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Egypt’s Electoral Politics Post-2011: Legitimacy and Authoritarian Control

  • Sujata Ashwarya,
  • Mujib Alam

摘要

This chapter examines Egypt’s electoral trajectory since the 2011 Arab Uprisings and shows how electoral authoritarianism consolidated under President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. The brief opening after 2011 gave way, following the 2013 military coup, to contests that retain procedural form while narrowing choice. Presidential elections in 2014, 2018, and 2023 have entrenched incumbency rather than enable alternation. Reforms to electoral law and district boundaries (constituencies) have favoured individual candidacies and regime-aligned parties, weakening party organisation and limiting competitive entry. The chapter traces how legal frameworks, constitutional amendments, coercive pressures, and electoral engineering project legitimacy to domestic and external audiences. Since 2015, parliamentary cycles have reinforced pro-regime dominance, including through districting (constituency delimitation) and patronage networks organised around Mostaqbal Watan. Quotas have expanded descriptive representation for women and selected groups, yet influence remains constrained by elite control and restricted civic space. Economic performance and high-visibility projects supply a vocabulary of progress, but inequality, youth unemployment, and renewed inflation strain credibility. External support, alonside sustained repression of civil society has further stabilised the system. The chapter concludes that elections in contemporary Egypt function primarily as instruments of controlled participation, and it outlines the institutional conditions under which representation could become meaningful again.