Country profile
Egypt
Jumhuriyat Misr al-Arabiyah
Africa · Northern Africa
EG · EGY
- Capital
- Cairo
- Population
- 107,271,260
- Area
- 1,002,450 km²
- Democracy index
- 26
- Regime type
- Electoral Autocracy
Events
Ballots from Egypt
The latest elections, referendums, and opinion polls from Egypt. Community totals are not official results.
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Classification
Democracy profile
The score and regime label are assigned by Porto Voto using our in-house democracy index and classification framework, not ratings from governments or external agencies.
Democracy index
26/100
Regime type
Electoral Autocracy
Egypt continues to operate as a tightly managed electoral autocracy under the centralized leadership of President Abdel Fattah El Sisi, whose authority was further reaffirmed in the January 2026 announcement of final parliamentary election results. While the ruling Nation's Future Party secured a dominant plurality of 227 seats, the electoral process was marred by significant irregularities, including the annulment of results in 47 constituencies due to allegations of vote buying and ballot tampering. As of April 2026, the political space remains severely restricted, with the National Security Agency continuing a campaign of arbitrary arrests and enforced disappearances targeting political opponents, activists, and journalists. High profile mass trials, such as the March 2024 sentencing of Muslim Brotherhood leaders to death, cast a long shadow over the current period, reinforcing a climate of fear that stifles meaningful dissent. Although the government has engaged in symbolic gestures like the National Dialogue and the recent drafting of a personal status law for Christian families, these moves occur within a framework where the executive maintains absolute control over the judiciary and media. Furthermore, the recent enactment of an asylum law in April 2026 has been criticized by human rights organizations for using vague national security exceptions to justify the detention of refugees, reflecting a broader trend where legal mechanisms are leveraged to prioritize state security over individual civil liberties.
Last evaluation:
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Country background
A concise introduction to Egypt, together with notes on how power and law are organized, to put local ballots in context.
The regularity and richness of the annual Nile River flood, coupled with semi-isolation provided by deserts to the east and west, allowed for the development of one of the world's great civilizations in Egypt. A unified kingdom arose circa 3200 B.C., and a series of dynasties ruled in Egypt for the next three millennia. The last native dynasty fell to the Persians in 341 B.C., who in turn were replaced by the Greeks, Romans, and Byzantines.
Arab conquerors introduced Islam and the Arabic language in the 7th century and ruled for the next six centuries. The Mamluks, a local military caste, took control around 1250 and continued to govern after the Ottoman Turks conquered Egypt in 1517. Completion of the Suez Canal in 1869 elevated Egypt as an important world transportation hub.
Ostensibly to protect its investments, Britain seized control of Egypt's government in 1882, but the country's nominal allegiance to the Ottoman Empire continued until 1914. Egypt gained partial independence from the UK in 1922 and full sovereignty in 1952. British forces evacuated the Suez Canal Zone in 1956.
The completion of the Aswan High Dam in 1971 and the resultant Lake Nasser have reaffirmed the time-honored place of the Nile River in the agriculture and ecology of Egypt. A rapidly growing population (the largest in the Arab world), limited arable land, and dependence on the Nile all continue to overtax resources and stress society. The government has struggled to meet the demands of Egypt's fast-growing population as it implements large-scale infrastructure projects, energy cooperation, and foreign direct investment appeals.
Inspired by the 2010 Tunisian revolution, Egyptian opposition groups led demonstrations and labor strikes countrywide, culminating in President Hosni MUBARAK's ouster in 2011. Egypt's military assumed national leadership until a new legislature was in place in early 2012; later that same year, Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed MORSI won the presidential election. Following protests throughout the spring of 2013 against MORSI's government and the Muslim Brotherhood, the Egyptian Armed Forces intervened and removed MORSI from power in July 2013 and replaced him with interim president Adly MANSOUR.
Simultaneously, the government began enacting laws to limit freedoms of assembly and expression. In 2014, voters approved a new constitution by referendum and then elected former defense minister Abdel Fattah EL-SISI president. EL-SISI was reelected to a second four-year term in 2018 and a third term in December 2023.