Egypt ends first day vote for upper house elections

 　　CAIRO, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- The polling stations of Egypt's Shura Council (upper house of parliament) elections closed Sunday on the first day of the two-day vote with a low turnout rate of voters.

　　In the first stage of the upper house elections, voters in 13 out of Egypt's 27 governorates went to the polls, including those in Cairo, Alexandria, Minufiya, Gharbiya, Daqahliya, Damietta, Fayoum, Assuit, Qena, al Wadi al-Jadid, North Sinai, South Sinai and Red Sea.

　　As happened in the People's Assembly (lower house) elections, some violations¹ of regulations occurred in the upper house polls. Most notably², some laptops were used for publicity³ outside the ballot⁴ committees.

　　Although eligible⁵ voters have reached 25 million in the Muslim country, the 5,032 polling stations only saw a small number of them cast ballot on Sunday.

　　"The low turnout rate is due to insufficient⁶ advertisement," Fikry Murad, a 56 years-old Olympic National Committee board member told Xinhua, adding that the media did not promote the importance of the Shura Council.

　　"The press coverage⁷ all focused on the People's Assembly elections, as if the Shura council isn't part of the parliamentary process or won't affect the decision-making in our country," Fikry added, referring to the lower house polls where two major Islamist parties won most of the seats.

　　The Shura Council consists of 270 members, with 180 chosen by voters and 90 appointed by the president yet to be elected.

　　Egypt's ruling military council shortened the process of the upper house polls from three stages to only two, with the first being held on Sunday and Monday and the second on Feb. 14 and 15. A run-off will be held about a week later after the first round in each phase if necessary.

　　The first session of the elected Shura Council is scheduled to convene⁸ on Feb. 28.

1 violations   

违反( violation的名词复数 )； 冒犯； 违反（行为、事例）； 强奸

参考例句：

• This is one of the commonest traffic violations. 这是常见的违反交通规则之例。
• These violations of the code must cease forthwith. 这些违犯法规的行为必须立即停止。

2 notably   

adv.值得注意地，显著地，尤其地，特别地

参考例句：

• Many students were absent,notably the monitor.许多学生缺席，特别是连班长也没来。
• A notably short,silver-haired man,he plays basketball with his staff several times a week.他个子明显较为矮小，一头银发，每周都会和他的员工一起打几次篮球。

3 publicity   

n.众所周知，闻名；宣传，广告

参考例句：

• The singer star's marriage got a lot of publicity.这位歌星的婚事引起了公众的关注。
• He dismissed the event as just a publicity gimmick.他不理会这件事，只当它是一种宣传手法。

4 ballot   

n.（不记名）投票，投票总数，投票权；vi.投票

参考例句：

• The members have demanded a ballot.会员们要求投票表决。
• The union said they will ballot members on whether to strike.工会称他们将要求会员投票表决是否罢工。

5 eligible   

adj.有条件被选中的；(尤指婚姻等)合适(意)的

参考例句：

• He is an eligible young man.他是一个合格的年轻人。
• Helen married an eligible bachelor.海伦嫁给了一个中意的单身汉。

6 insufficient   

adj.(for，of)不足的，不够的

参考例句：

• There was insufficient evidence to convict him.没有足够证据给他定罪。
• In their day scientific knowledge was insufficient to settle the matter.在他们的时代，科学知识还不能足以解决这些问题。

7 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。

8 convene   

v.集合，召集，召唤，聚集，集合

参考例句：

• The Diet will convene at 3p.m. tomorrow.国会将于明天下午三点钟开会。
• Senior officials convened in October 1991 in London.1991年10月，高级官员在伦敦会齐。