CAIRO — Egypt’s 2015 parliamentary makeup is taking shape as elections officially get underway to form a long-awaited Council of Representatives. This achievement, seen as the electoral culmination of a road map announced July 3, 2013, is taking place in the absence of most of the post-January 2011 revolution political and partisan figures, who gradually disappeared from the political arena during the past two years.

In that context, the electoral scene is dominated by some pro-regime symbols and affluent supporters of the Hosni Mubarak regime, known as "feloul" ("remnants"), after the January 25 Revolution. There are some political parties timidly participating through the nomination of a few candidates, in keeping with the Egyptian Elections Law that limited opportunities for political party candidates to reach parliament, as opposed to individual candidates.

Despite political bickering between the regime and the multitude of political parties and movements that reject the elections law, and the cancellation of elections in March after a decision to that effect by the Supreme Constitutional Court — which found those laws in breach of constitutional provisions — President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi again approved the law in July after the Cabinet made minor amendments to the provisions dealing with individual candidacies. Still, this failed to satisfy political movements that rejected the draft bill from its inception.

Furthermore, in its decision No. 65 in August, the Supreme Electoral Commission called on eligible citizens to exercise their political right to cast their ballots in the upcoming parliamentary elections, organized pursuant to the 2014 Law on the Exercise of Political Rights, the amended 2014 Council of Representatives Law and the amended 2014 Electoral District Law, in two stages. The first stage would be held in 14 governorates Oct. 18-19, and the second in 13 governorates Nov. 22-23.