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The obvious low turnout that dominated the general scene in the first stage of Egypt's long-awaited parliamentary polls is attributed to the dissatisfaction of youth and the previous recurrent delays of the vital event, said political experts.
The ongoing two-day elections that kicked off Sunday mark the third and final phase of the country's future roadmap to democracy declared by then-army chief and now President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi on the removal of former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013 in response to mass protests.
Although more than 27 million Egyptians are eligible to vote in the first stage, the polling stations in the concerned 14 provinces looked too quiet compared to the 2012 polls that elected a parliament dominated by Islamists with more than a 54-percent turnout.
YOUTH DISCONTENT
The youth who spearheaded the 2011 revolution that toppled long-time ruler Hosni Mubarak have been recurrently attacked by pro-Sisi media and accused of unawareness and even treason when they opposed some of the new leadership's policies including the anti-protest law issued by the president.
Instead of casting their votes in the polls, most of the youth made fun of the electoral process and the vacant polling stations on social media websites like Facebook and Twitter.
"There is a crisis of lack of communication with the youth who should rather be contained and engaged in the country's political life," said Sameh Abdullah, Sameh Abdullah, managing editor of state-run Al-Ahram newspaper and head of the paper's official website.
Abdullah told Xinhua that the youth disregarded the elections as the society and the media are unable to realize that the new generation have a real vision "and they see things differently due to their openness to the world through the internet and the social media outlets."
A lot of youth were hit by a mixture of discontent and disappointment particularly after seeing dozens of youth activists being jailed or prosecuted for breaking the anti-protest law or opposing the current military-oriented regime.
"The media attacks against the youth and accusing them of being foreign agents and labeling their anti-Mubarak uprising as a conspiracy all led to their aversion of the overall political scene," Ahmed Eliba, researcher at the Cairo-based Regional Center for Strategic Studies, told Xinhua.
Eliba argued that the youth lost interest in participation in the polls after they felt that the current political scene and the media are dominated by opportunists and men loyal to Mubarak's former regime. "The media is still playing the pro-regime old role, " he added.
RECURRENT DELAYS
The most populous Arab state has been without a parliament for about three years, as the last one elected in late 2011 months after Mubarak's ouster was dissolved in June 2012 by a court order.
President Sisi is currently holding the legislative authority in the absence of a parliament whose elections were supposed to be held six months after the new constitution is approved in early 2014, but they were repeatedly delayed for several legal and political reasons.
"Being exhausted in several previous elections and referendums over the past few years and the recurrent delays of the parliamentary polls caused a kind of reluctance and lack of interest to a lot of people," Eliba said.
For his part, Hassan Nafaa, political science professor at Cairo University, agreed that delaying the elections more than once and then scheduling them to be done in a short time were basic reasons behind the comparatively low turnout in the 2015 polls.
WEAK PARLIAMENT
Since Morsi's removal, the new leadership declared "a war against terrorism" and issued a number of anti-terror and anti-protest laws that allegedly limited freedom and opposition in the country.
The crackdown on Morsi's loyalists extended to reach liberals who once supported Morsi's ouster, leaving thousands of both sides in jail mostly from Morsi's now-banned Muslim Brotherhood group.
Besides, the new election law provides 75 percent of the parliament's 596 seats for individual candidates, which has disappointed most political parties as it opens door for wealthy people to turn into lawmakers.
"The time limit and the controversial election law led to the appearance of opportunists and the withdrawal of good candidates from the beginning as the latter saw that the general atmosphere does not foreshadow a strong parliament," Nafaa told Xinhua.
"The low turnout signals a strong message to the current regime of people's dissatisfaction with the ongoing policies," the professor said.
