At stake in this Referendum:

• A referendum will be held on the draft Constitution approved by the Constituent Assembly on November 30, 2012.

Description of government structure:

• Chief of State: President Mohammed MORSI
• Head of Government: Prime Minister Hesham KANDIL
• Assembly: Egypt has a bicameral Parliament consisting of the Advisory Council (Majilis Al-Shura) with 264 seats* and the People's Assembly (Majlis Al-Sha'b) with 508 seats**.

* Districts for the Shura Council elections include 30 Proportional Representation districts and 30 Independent Candidate districts, which means that the PR districts will average four seats per district

** Every district contains two seats and electors are given two votes. At least one seat in each district is reserved for a worker or farmer. If no candidate receives an absolute majority in the first round, a second round is held one week later. This round will contain the top 4 vote-getters, provided 2 are workers and/or farmers. If the two top candidates in the first round are not workers or farmers, the top candidate is elected, while a new simple majority poll is held a week later among the top workers and farmers. PR seats are broken into 46 districts, which are based on Egypt’s 27 governorates. In the nominal tier of seats, 166 members are divided into 83 districts. The threshold for entering parliament is .05%.

Main provisions in the Referendum:

• The adoption of the draft Constitution of Egypt as approved by the Constituent Assembly on November 30, 2012.

Electoral Requirements

• There are no thresholds for turnout or approval of the referendum. There is no law that specifically governs how the referendum is administered. However, Law No. 73 of 1956 on the Practice of Political Rights stipulates that the High Judicial Election Commission will administer the elections and that the polling committees are to be headed by a member of a judicial body. Furthermore, Article 39 of the March 2011 Constitutional Declaration also states that judges are responsible for overseeing counting and tabulation

Population and number of registered voters:

• Population: 85,660,902 (2012)
• Registered Voters: 47,192,169 (2012)

Gender Data:

·         Female Population: 42,403,053 (2012)

·         Is Egypt a signatory to CEDAW: Yes (16 July 1980)

·         Has Egypt ratified CEDAW: Yes (18 September 1981)

·         Gender Quota: Yes

·         Female candidates in this election: Yes

·         Number of Female Parliamentarians: 10 (following the 2011 elections)

·         Human Development Index Position: 108 (2014)

·         Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) Categorization: Very High (2014)

Disability Data:

·         Is Egypt a signatory to CRPD: Yes (4 April 2007)

·         Has Egypt ratified CRPD: Yes (14 April 2008)

·         Population with a disability: 12,568,145 (est.)