(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) Gates to the ballot stations across Egypt opened up at 09:00 a.m. on Sunday signaling start of nationwide parliamentary elections, locally referred to as the last phase of the interim political period, or the "road map." The electoral centers were opened for the two-day election in the country's governorates, including Al-Giza, Al-Fayoum, Bani Swaif, Al-Minya, Assiut, Al-Wadi Al-Gedid, Sohag, Luxor, Aswan, the Red Sea, Alexandria, Al-Behaira and Marsa Matrouh.
Electorate in the election's first phase are estimated at more than 27 million, distributed over 103 general electoral committees and 5,460 sub-committees. Number of nominees for the individuals' polling stands at 2,573, including 112 women. Proportion of the independent runners is in the range of 65 percent, as compared to 35 percent representing political parties.
There are four contending lists; Nedaa Misr, the independent Al-Sahwa bloc, For the Love of Egypt and the Egyptian Front Coalition and the Independent Trend. A voter can cast ballot for a single list only.
Egyptians in diaspora have already voted in the nation's parliamentary elections. Up to 139 electoral committees stationed at embassies and consulates throughout the world oversaw the process - with exemption of Yemen, Syria, Libya and Central Africa, due to instability in these countries.
Eligible voters for the first phase of the process are numbered at 27 million. Up to 16,000 judges will oversee first and second stages of the polling. It is also supervised by local and foreign observers.
Officials have urged the people to take part in the election, the first to be held since ousting the former president, Mohammad Morsi, in July 2013.
The polling is the third phase of the "road map," following enacting of the new constitution in 2014 and the presidential elections that brought Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi to power.
Observers affirm significance of the elections, considering the crucial political events that happened in the nation over the past years.
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