1936 Egyptian parliamentary election

1936 Egyptian parliamentary election

←  1929 May 1936 1942  →

First party Second party   Leader Mostafa el-Nahas Mohamed Mahmoud Party Wafd Liberal Constitutional Seats won 190 15   Third party Fourth party   Leader Hafiz Ramadan Bey Party Popular Unionist National Seats won 14 4

Prime Minister before election Aly Maher Pasha Ittihad Party Subsequent Prime Minister Mostafa el-Nahas Wafd Party

Cartoon by Akher Saa showing the Wafd crushing their opponents after the 1936 election: "I can crush you... but I don't want to get my hands dirty!"

Parliamentary elections were held in Egypt in May 1936; ^[1] elections for the Chamber of Deputies took place on 2 May and for the Senate on 7 May. ^[2] The elections were held following the death of King Fuad I, and his son Farouk's ascension to the throne. The result was a victory for the Wafd Party, which won 190 of the 232 seats. King Farouk's coronation was held in the newly elected parliament on 29 July 1937.

Background

The 1923 constitution was restored on 12 December 1935, allowing for the first free elections since 1929. ^[3] The elections were held under Ali Maher's caretaker government with direct elections and universal adult male suffrage. ^[4]

Results

Different sources give different results for the elections; Dolf Sternberger et al. and Marius Deeb state that the Wafd won 179 of the 232 seats in the Chamber of Deputies, ^[5] with Deeb also giving the Wafd 65 of the 79 seats in the Senate. ^[2] David Moore puts the number of Wafdist seats at 166 in the Chamber and 62 in the senate, ^[6] while M.F. El-Khatib states that the Wafd won 190 seats in the Chamber, though notes 45 of the Wafd candidates were 'not official candidates of the party'. ^[7]

Chamber of Deputies

Party		Votes	%	Seats
	Wafd Party	794,966	62.05	190
	Popular Unionist Party	174,535	13.62	14
	Liberal Constitutional Party	157,454	12.29	15
	National Party	20,275	1.58	4
	Independents	133,855	10.45	9
Total		1,281,085	100.00	232
Registered voters/turnout		2,120,477	–
Source: Khatib [7]

Further reading

• Marsot, Afaf Lutfi Al-Sayyid (1977). Egypt’s Liberal Experiment: 1922–1936. University of California Press. ISBN   9780520031098.
• Terry, Janice J. (1982). The Wafd: Cornerstone of Egyptian Political Power. Third World Centre for Research and Publishing. ISBN   9780861990009.
• Thornhill, Michael T. (June 2010). "Informal Empire, Independent Egypt and the Accession of King Farouk". The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History. 38 (2): 279–302.

References

1. "Nationalists victors in Egyptian election; With Returns Incomplete, Wafd Has 118 Seats, Against 27 for the Opposition". The New York Times . 1936-05-04. p. 10. Retrieved 2025-08-13.
2. Deeb, Marius (1979). Party Politics in Egypt: the Wafd & its Rivals 1919–1939. Ithaca Press. p. 332. ISBN   9780903729406.
3. El-Khatib, M.F (1954). The working of parliamentary institutions in Egypt, 1924-1952 (Thesis). University of Edinburgh. p. 65.
4. Quraishi, Zaheer M. (1967). Liberal Nationalism in Egypt; Rise and Fall of the Wafd Party. Jamal Printing Press. p. 232. ISBN   9780861990009.
5. Dolf Sternberger, Bernhard Vogel, Dieter Nohlen & Klaus Landfried (1978) Die Wahl der Parlamente: Band II: Afrika, Erster Halbband, p294 (in German)
6. Moore, David F. (January 1965). The Wafd Party of Egypt: 1936-1945 (Master of Arts thesis). American University of Beirut. p. 26.
7. El-Khatib 1954, p. 488.