Egyptian parliamentary election, 1923–24

Last updated March 29, 2019

Parliamentary elections were held in two stages in Egypt in 1923 and 1924, the first since nominal independence from the United Kingdom in 1922. The result was a victory for the Wafd Party, which won 188 of the 215 seats.^[1]

Egypt, officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia by a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. Egypt is a Mediterranean country bordered by the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Gulf of Aqaba and the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south, and Libya to the west. Across the Gulf of Aqaba lies Jordan, across the Red Sea lies Saudi Arabia, and across the Mediterranean lie Greece, Turkey and Cyprus, although none share a land border with Egypt.

The United Kingdom, officially the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland but more commonly known as the UK or Britain, is a sovereign country lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland. The United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state‍—‌the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east, the English Channel to the south and the Celtic Sea to the south-west, giving it the 12th-longest coastline in the world. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland. With an area of 242,500 square kilometres (93,600 sq mi), the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world. It is also the 22nd-most populous country, with an estimated 66.0 million inhabitants in 2017.

The Wafd Party was a nationalist liberal political party in Egypt. It was said to be Egypt's most popular and influential political party for a period from the end of World War I through the 1930s. During this time, it was instrumental in the development of the 1923 constitution, and supported moving Egypt from dynastic rule to a constitutional monarchy, where power would be wielded by a nationally-elected parliament. The party was dissolved in 1952, after the 1952 Egyptian Revolution.

Background

The British government unilaterally recognized Egypt's independence on 28 February 1922. The Kingdom of Egypt was established two weeks later. On 21 April 1923, a new liberal constitution was promulgated. A royal decree was published on 6 September of the same year, which ordered the holding of the first election under the new constitution. Nationalist leader Saad Zaghloul, who had been exiled to Aden, Seychelles and Gibraltar, returned to Egypt on 17 September to take part in the electoral campaign.^[2] Zaghloul and his partisans ran a campaign that exposed the problems of the newly established constitutional order. Zaghloul was especially critical of the electoral laws, which he viewed as incompatible with democracy since they made eligibility of candidacy to general elections conditional on income. The Students Executive Committee of Zaghloul's Wafd Party played a crucial role in the campaign.^[3]

The Unilateral Declaration of Egyptian Independence was issued by the government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland on 28 February 1922. Through this declaration, the British government unilaterally ended its protectorate over Egypt and granted it nominal independence with the exception of four "reserved" areas: foreign relations, communications, the military and the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan.

The Kingdom of Egypt was the de jure independent Egyptian state established under the Muhammad Ali Dynasty in 1922 following the Unilateral Declaration of Egyptian Independence by the United Kingdom. Until the Anglo-Egyptian treaty of 1936, the Kingdom was only nominally independent, since the British retained control of foreign relations, communications, the military and the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. Between 1936 and 1952, the British continued to maintain military presence and political advisers, at a reduced level.

Saad Zaghloul was an Egyptian revolutionary and statesman. He was the leader of Egypt's nationalist Wafd Party. He served as Prime Minister of Egypt from 26 January 1924 to 24 November 1924.

System

The election was held over two stages. In the first stage on 27 September 1923, 38,000 electoral representatives were elected by the general population.^[4] These were announced on 3 October.^[4] In the second stage, 12 January 1924, the representatives elected members of the new Parliament.^[4]

Results

Zaghloul's Wafd Party, which had run for all Chamber of Deputies seats, won a landslide victory, winning 188 of the 215 seats.^[1] However, it fared less well in the Senate because it was harder to find qualified candidates to run for its constituencies.^[5] It won 66 Senate seats.^[6] Wafdist voters included the medium and small landowners, urban professionals, merchants and industrialists, shopkeepers, workers and peasants.^[5]

Members of Egypt's Coptic Christian minority received 10% of the seats.^[7] This was higher than the Copts' share of Egypt's population, which stood at six percent according to the 1917 census. The social origin of the Copts who had been elected was very similar to that of the Muslims: mostly wealthy landowners, but also a small number of middle-class professionals, mostly lawyers as well as a few doctors. Two-thirds of the districts that elected Copts were in Upper Egypt, and one-third in Lower Egypt. The Wafd was the only party that managed to get Coptic candidates elected in the Nile Delta region of Lower Egypt, where Copts were not very numerous. It felt vindicated by these results, which were a clear sign of the party's strength and a testament to its commitment to secularism and national unity.^[8]

Egypt is the most populous country in the Arab World and the third-most populous on the African continent. About 95% of the country's 97 million people (2017) live along the banks of the Nile and in the Nile Delta, which fans out north of Cairo; and along the Suez Canal. These regions are among the world's most densely populated, containing an average of over 1,540 per km², as compared to 96 persons per km² for the country as a whole.

Upper Egypt is the strip of land on both sides of the Nile that extends between Nubia and downriver (northwards) to Lower Egypt.

Lower Egypt is the northernmost region of Egypt: the fertile Nile Delta, between Upper Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea — from El Aiyat, south of modern-day Cairo, and Dahshur. Historically, the Nile River split into seven branches of the delta in Lower Egypt. Lower Egypt was divided into nomes and began to advance as a civilization after 3600 BC. Today, it contains two channels major that flow through the delta of the Nile River.

Party	%	Seats
Wafd Party		188
Other parties and independents		27
Invalid/blank votes	–	–
Total		215
Source: Sternberger et al.

Aftermath

The Wafd Party's resounding victory meant that King Fuad I had no choice but to ask Zaghloul to form a new government. He did so on 27 January, and Zaghloul was named Prime Minister of Egypt.^[9] The Wafd felt it had a mandate to conclude a treaty with the United Kingdom that would assure Egypt complete independence. As prime minister, Zaghloul carefully selected a cross-section of Egyptian society for his cabinet, which he called the "People's Ministry." On 15 March 1924, King Fuad opened the first Egyptian constitutional parliament amid national rejoicing. The Wafdist government did not last long, however.^[10]

King of Egypt was the title used by the ruler of Egypt between 1922 and 1951. When the United Kingdom ended its protectorate over Egypt on 28 February 1922, Egypt's Sultan Fouad I issued a decree on 15 March 1922 whereby he adopted the title of King of Egypt. It has been reported that the title change was due not only to Egypt's newly independent status, but also to Fouad I's desire to be accorded the same title as the newly installed rulers of the newly created kingdoms of Hejaz, Syria and Iraq. The only other monarch to be styled King of Egypt was Fouad I's son Farouk I, whose title was changed to King of Egypt and the Sudan in October 1951 following the Wafdist government's unilateral abrogation of the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936. The monarchy was abolished on 18 June 1953 following the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 and the establishment of a republic. The then-king, the infant Fuad II of Egypt, went into exile in Switzerland.

Fuad I was the Sultan and later King of Egypt and Sudan, Sovereign of Nubia, Kordofan, and Darfur. The ninth ruler of Egypt and Sudan from the Muhammad Ali dynasty, he became Sultan of Egypt and Sudan in 1917, succeeding his elder brother Sultan Hussein Kamel. He substituted the title of King for Sultan when the United Kingdom recognised Egyptian independence in 1922. His name is sometimes spelled Fouad.

The Prime Minister of Egypt is the head of the Egyptian government.

On 19 November 1924, Sir Lee Stack, the British governor general of Sudan and commander of the Egyptian Army, was assassinated in Cairo. The assassination was one of a series of killings of British officials that had begun in 1920. Viscount Allenby, the British High Commissioner to Egypt, considered Stack an old and trusted friend. He was thus determined to avenge the crime and in the process humiliate the Wafd and destroy its credibility in Egypt. Allenby demanded that Egypt apologize, prosecute the assailants, pay a £500,000 indemnity, withdraw all troops from Sudan, consent to an unlimited increase of irrigation in Sudan and end all opposition to the capitulations (Britain's demand of the right to protect foreign interests in the country). Zaghloul wanted to resign rather than accept the ultimatum, but Allenby presented it to him before Zaghloul could offer his resignation to the king. Zaghloul and his cabinet decided to accept the first four terms but to reject the last two. On 24 November, after ordering the Ministry of Finance to pay the indemnity, Zaghloul resigned. He died three years later.^[10]

Related Research Articles

The Copts are an ethnoreligious group indigenous to Northeast Africa who primarily inhabit the area of modern Egypt, where they are the largest Christian denomination in the country. Copts are also the largest Christian denomination in Sudan and Libya. Historically, they spoke the Coptic language, a direct descendant of the Demotic Egyptian that was spoken in late antiquity.

The Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936 was a treaty signed between the United Kingdom and the Kingdom of Egypt. Under the terms of the treaty, the United Kingdom was required to withdraw all its troops from Egypt, except those necessary to protect the Suez Canal and its surroundings, numbering 10,000 troops plus auxiliary personnel. Additionally, the United Kingdom would supply and train Egypt's army and assist in its defence in case of war. The treaty was to last for 20 years; it was negotiated in the Zaafarana palace, signed in London on 26 August 1936 and ratified on 22 December. It was registered in League of Nations Treaty Series on 6 January 1937.

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References

1 2 Dolf Sternberger, Bernhard Vogel, Dieter Nohlen & Klaus Landfried (1978) Die Wahl der Parlamente: Band II: Afrika, Erster Halbband, p294 (in German)
↑ Toynbee, Arnold Joseph (1927). The Islamic World Since the Peace Settlement (snippet view). Survey of International Affairs, Vol. 1. London: Oxford University Press. p. 205. OCLC 21169232 . Retrieved 2010-07-22.
↑ Maghraoui, Abdeslam (2006). Liberalism Without Democracy: Nationhood and Citizenship in Egypt, 1922–1936. Politics, History, and Culture. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. p. 131. ISBN 978-0-8223-3838-3. OCLC 469693850 . Retrieved 2010-07-23.
1 2 3 Democracy is born Al-Ahram Weekly, 25–31 May 2000, No. 483
1 2 Goldschmidt, Arthur; Johnston, Robert (2004). Historical Dictionary of Egypt (3rd ed.). American University in Cairo Press. p. 412. ISBN 978-977-424-875-7. OCLC 58833952.
↑ "Nationalists Win in Egypt" (fee required). The New York Times . 1924-02-25. p. 7. Retrieved 2010-07-22.
↑ Schrand, Irmgard (2004). Jews in Egypt: Communists and Citizens (snippet view). Studien zur Zeitgeschichte des Nahen Ostens und Nordafrikas, Vol. 10. Münster: Lit. p. 36. ISBN 978-3-8258-7516-9. OCLC 56657957 . Retrieved 2010-07-22.
↑ Hassan, Sana (2003). Christians versus Muslims in Modern Egypt: The Century-Long Struggle for Coptic Equality. New York: Oxford University Press US. p. 40. ISBN 978-0-19-513868-9 . Retrieved 2010-07-22.
↑ Sicker, Martin (2001). The Middle East in the Twentieth Century. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 107. ISBN 978-0-275-96893-9 . Retrieved 2010-07-22.
1 2 This article incorporates public domain material from the Library of Congress Country Studies document "Egypt: The Rise and Decline of the Wafd, 1924–39" by Mary Ann Fay.Retrieved on 2010-07-22.

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[DS-1] 1 2 Dolf Sternberger, Bernhard Vogel, Dieter Nohlen & Klaus Landfried (1978) Die Wahl der Parlamente: Band II: Afrika, Erster Halbband, p294 (in German)

[2] Toynbee, Arnold Joseph (1927). The Islamic World Since the Peace Settlement (snippet view). Survey of International Affairs, Vol. 1. London: Oxford University Press. p. 205. OCLC 21169232 . Retrieved 2010-07-22.

[3] Maghraoui, Abdeslam (2006). Liberalism Without Democracy: Nationhood and Citizenship in Egypt, 1922–1936. Politics, History, and Culture. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. p. 131. ISBN 978-0-8223-3838-3. OCLC 469693850 . Retrieved 2010-07-23.

[AAW-4] 1 2 3 Democracy is born Al-Ahram Weekly, 25–31 May 2000, No. 483

[Goldschmidt-5] 1 2 Goldschmidt, Arthur; Johnston, Robert (2004). Historical Dictionary of Egypt (3rd ed.). American University in Cairo Press. p. 412. ISBN 978-977-424-875-7. OCLC 58833952.

[6] "Nationalists Win in Egypt" (fee required). The New York Times . 1924-02-25. p. 7. Retrieved 2010-07-22.

[7] Schrand, Irmgard (2004). Jews in Egypt: Communists and Citizens (snippet view). Studien zur Zeitgeschichte des Nahen Ostens und Nordafrikas, Vol. 10. Münster: Lit. p. 36. ISBN 978-3-8258-7516-9. OCLC 56657957 . Retrieved 2010-07-22.

[8] Hassan, Sana (2003). Christians versus Muslims in Modern Egypt: The Century-Long Struggle for Coptic Equality. New York: Oxford University Press US. p. 40. ISBN 978-0-19-513868-9 . Retrieved 2010-07-22.

[9] Sicker, Martin (2001). The Middle East in the Twentieth Century. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 107. ISBN 978-0-275-96893-9 . Retrieved 2010-07-22.

[LOC-10] 1 2 This article incorporates public domain material from the Library of Congress Country Studies document "Egypt: The Rise and Decline of the Wafd, 1924–39" by Mary Ann Fay.Retrieved on 2010-07-22.

v t e Elections and referendums in Egypt
Presidential elections	1956 1958 1965 1970 1976 1981 1987 1993 1999 2005 2012 2014 2018
Parliamentary elections	1883 1889 1895 1901 1907 1913 1923–24 1925 1926 1929 1936 1942 1945 1950 1957 1964 1969 1971 1976 1979 1984 1987 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2011–12 2015
Shura Council elections	1980 1983 1986 1989 1992 1995 1998 2001 2004 2007 2010 2012
Referendums	1956 1958 1968 1971 (1 Sep) 1971 (11 Sep) 1974 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1987 1990 2005 2007 2011 2012 2014