The Muslim Brotherhood won 58 per cent of the seats up for grabs in the Egyptian parliament’s upper house, election officials said Feb. 25, further solidifying their role as the country’s most powerful and organised political group. The election commission said that the ultraconservative Al-Nour party came in second with a quarter of the seats in the upper house, known as the Shoura Council, while liberal parties, including the Egyptian bloc and Wafd, came in third with a combined total of 12 per cent of the seats. Islamists also dominated elections that wrapped up earlier this year for the People’s Assembly, the more powerful of the two houses of parliament. The Brotherhood, long banned under former President Hosni Mubarak, won nearly half of the seats in that vote – the first since last year’s uprising that toppled Mubarak.
The 270-seat upper house has no legislative powers and enjoys only a consultative role. Two-thirds of the seats are filled by elections and the rest are appointed.