In partnership with the German foundation Friedrich Ebert, Al-Bayan Center for Planning and Studies held a new symposium in a series of symposiums discussing the early elections to be held next October.

The symposium was entitled “Early parliamentary elections; Action, Oversight, security”, where the symposium discussed current data relating to the conduct of elections.

The symposium hosted: Dawud Salman, Director of Electoral Procedures at the Electoral Commission, Kareem Al-Tamimi, Presidential Adviser to the Electoral File, and Durayd Tawfiq, a researcher and electoral expert.

Salman said, “The preliminary results, which will be announced 24 hours after polling time ends at 6 p.m., are the results of stations that are sent electronically and do not perform manual counting and screening”. Salman noted that “according to article 38 of the Council of Representatives Elections Act No. 9 of 2020, which provides that there shall be one station where counting and manual sorting is carried out, the results of this station shall be sent electronically but not adopted at the data entry center. The remaining stations shall have their results adopted from the moment of transmission”.

According to Al-Tamimi, “the President of the Republic attaches great importance to the electoral file. He was one of the initiators of the reform of the legal system governing the electoral process, whether by amending the Electoral Code or the Commission, in addition to communicating with the Commission through seminars, meetings, and conferences to resolve all the problems facing its work.” He added that “everyone, including the Presidency of the Republic, is looking for broad participation during the elections to be held on 10thOctober, as they come after popular protests and therefore, we believe that their technical success is not enough but needs broad participation, which is very important because the legitimacy of the next Government comes through that participation”.

For his part, Durayd Tawfiq addressed the problems facing the electoral process and the concerns of candidates, particularly independents, in the upcoming electoral process.

The symposium featured extensive interventions on the opportunities and challenges of early parliamentary elections.