CAIRO — Egypt’s National Elections Authority (NEA) announced Aug. 26 that it would refer to prosecutors 54 million people who did not cast their votes in the 2020 Senate elections.

The board of directors of the NEA, headed by Judge Lachin Ibrahim, held a meeting Aug. 26 to discuss the "mechanisms to apply the provisions of the Law on the Regulation of the Exercise of Political Rights on voters who failed to perform their national duty and cast a vote in the first round of Senate elections held Aug. 11-12." The board reviewed the lists of names of eligible voters who failed to exercise this right.

The board said after its meeting that the Egyptian state provided all the capabilities and equipment necessary for voters to exercise their political right and vote in the first round of the elections, and the NEA took all precautionary measures that would protect parties to the electoral process and voters from the coronavirus pandemic.

The public committees, formed by the NEA to follow up on the electoral process throughout the country, had repeatedly stressed the need to take part in the electoral process ahead of election day. Yet still, some failed to fulfill their national role and duty to participate, which led the board of directors of the authority to refer them to the public prosecution to take the necessary action in this regard.