 | This user is interested in Egypt. |
Just some guy who wants to improve the Egypt articles and some other Arab articles
Note on Egyptian Elections from 1923-1952
editThis section was inspired by this video by Noj Rants. In the video he mentions the difficulty with recording old election results. As he puts it:
In the 19th century, parliamentary elections did not work like they do today. Nowadays, we have the luxury of readily available deputy lists, with everyone being a firm member of a solidified, institutionalized party, complete with a website and a platform. The numbers are known, easily found, and mostly uncontroversial.
However, in many of these older European elections, parties were more like transitory, overlapping groupings that have to be retroactively constructed from voting patterns and newspaper clippings. Wikipedia's format often prefers or implies that there must be clear-cut groups with leaders, voters, winners, and losers.
How exactly does one translate this complexity into a couple of neat numbers of deputies who are elected weeks after opening day, are in two parties at once, were elected on a joint ticket, or claim one party but vote against it? After all, people were electing a person here first and foremost, not a party.
TLDR: Different sources give different numbers. The German source (the one most used in articles on early 20th century Egyptian elections) doesn't even include 1931 or the 1939 election.
This section on my talk page is here to document the different ways historians have counted elections in the Kingdom of Egypt. I understand Wikipedia uses Politische Organisation und Repräsentation in Afrika: Band 2 Afrika - which is in German.
Let's start with the German source.
Politische Organisation und Repräsentation in Afrika: Band 2 Afrika
editSource: Table A 2 on page 294
| Party | 1923 | 1925 | 1926 | 1929 | 1936 | 1942 | 1945 | 1950 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wafd | 188 (87.5%) | 86 (40%) | 150 (69.8%) | 198 (83.9%) | 169 (72.8%) | 240 (90.9%) | 225 (70.5%) | |
| Liberal-Constitutionalists | 30 (14%) | 17 (7.3%) | 4 (1.5%) | 74 (28%) | 26 (8.1%) | |||
| Unionists (Ittihad) | 10 (4.6%) | |||||||
| Nationalists (Wattani) | 5 (2.3%) | 4 (1.7%) | 2 (0.8%) | 7 (2.7%) | 6 (1.9%) | |||
| Sa'dists | 1 (0.4%) | 125 (47.4%) | 28 (8.8%) | |||||
| Wafdist Bloc | 29 (10.9%) | |||||||
| Socialist | 1 (0.3%) | |||||||
| Independents | 20 (9.3%) | 42 (18.1%) | 17 (6.4%) | 29 (10.9%) | 33 (10.4%) | |||
| Other | 27 (12.5%) | 129 (60%) | 38 (16.1%) | |||||
| Total | 214 | 215 | 215 | 236 | 232 | 264 | 264 | 319 |
The Working of Parliamentary Institutions in Egypt, 1924-1952 (1954) by M.F El-Khatib
editDownload here Source: Table II of Appendix II (pages 487 to 489)
This thesis is cited by Appendix C [pages 231 - 233] of Liberal Nationalism in Egypt; Rise and Fall of the Wafd Party by Zaheer Masood Quraishi (1967). That 1967 book is cited by "The Wafd 1919-52" by Janice J.Terry (1982).
Terry however notes some discrepancies in the footnotes. On page 179 he agrees with the data that the Wafd won 179 seats in the 1924 election, but in the footnotes he notes that the British Foreign Office claims the Wafd won 178 seats. On page 183 he agrees with Quraishi (unbeknownst to him he is actually citing El-Khatib) that the Wafd received 46% of the vote in the 1925 election, but in the footnote he says that a February 10th 1950 edition of Al-Musawar put Wafdist popular vote at 60%. A similar thing happens on page 189. He cities Quraishi when saying the Wafd won 171 seats with 68% of the vote in the 1926 election, but in the footnote he clarifies that "Egypt Since Cromer Vol-II" by Lloyd (1933) page 163 puts the result as 144 seats for the Wafd out of 201, with the Liberal Constitutional Party getting 28, the Watani getting 5, 17 seats by Independents. and 7 by Ittihad.
| Election Year | Party | Candidates | Votes | Seats |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1924 |
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|
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| Total | 67,504 | 211 | ||
| 1925 |
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| Total | 67,342 | 222 | ||
| 1926 |
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| Total | 1,135,264 | 221 | ||
| 1929 |
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| Total | 1,002,662 | 232 | ||
| 1931 |
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| Total | 43,586 | 150 | ||
| 1936 |
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| Total | 1,281,085 | 232 | ||
| 1938 |
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| Total | 1,774,038 | 264 | ||
| 1942 |
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| Total | 1,267,004 | 264 | ||
| 1945 |
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| Total | 1,763,371 | 264 | ||
| 1950 |
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| Total | 2,488,744 | 319 |
Egypt’s Liberal Experiment: 1922-1936 by Afaf Lutfi al-Sayyid-Marsot (1977)
editMarsot's book does not cover the entirety of this period, but is still recommended reading for this subject. There's no table in the book, and some data is incomplete, so I made by own table to summarize the data with page numbers.
| Party | 1924 (pg.70) | 1925 (pg.86) | 1926 (pg.89) | 1929 (pg.129) | 1938 (pg.194) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wafd | 151 | 116 | 144 | 212 | 12 |
| Liberal-Constitutionalist | 7 | 28 | 192 | ||
| Watani | 2 | 5 | |||
| Ittihad | 7 | ||||
| Independents | 15 | 17 | |||
| Total | 175 | 124 | 201 | 235 | 294 |
In a Moment of Enthusiasm: Political Power and the Second Stratum in Egypt (1978) by Leonard Binder
editSource: Table 30 on page 138
| Year | Wafd Seats Won | Anti-Wafd Seats Won |
|---|---|---|
| 1924 | 181 | 33 |
| 1926 | 172 | 42 |
| 1929 | 212 | 20 |
| 1936 | 180 | 52 |
| 1938 | 14 | 250 |
| 1942 | 203 | 30 |
| 1950 | 157 | 79 |
Binder gives different totals than Quraishi because "Party affiliation totals listed here are based for the most part upon immediate press reports (al-Ahram and Egyptian Gazette) and differ slightly from Quraishi's totals, which seem to include later changes, chiefly to the Wafd in landslide election years. Totals for 1942 and 1950 are incomplete because occupational data were unavailable. First and second ballot figures for 1942 give the Wafd 234 seats, versus 30 to Independent and minority party candidates; in 1950, these figures are 221 and 98, respectively.
The History of Modern Egypt : From Muhammad Ali to Mubarak by P. J. Vatikiotis
editVatikiotis too gives different numbers
| Year | Wafd | Liberal-Constitutionalist | Watani |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1924 (pg.280) | 195 (out of 214) | 2 | 2 |
| 1925 (pg.283) | 116 | ||
| 1926 (pg.285) | 165 | ||
| 1929 (pg.287) | 212 (out of 235) | ||
| 1938 (pg.296) | 12 | 193 (80 were Sa'dists in their alliance) | 4 |
Vatikiotis claims the Wafd polled barely 40% in the 1950 election (pg.369)