Voting for a new Parliament begins in Egypt

Cairo: Egyptians are voting in the nation's first parliamentary election since the military's 2013 ouster of Egypt's first freely elected president and the election a year later of the general who removed him.

Egyptians residing abroad began voting on Saturday and will continue till Sunday, the first of two days of voting in 15 provinces, including Cairo's twin city of Giza.

Voting in Egypt's 13 other provinces will be on November 22-23. Many analysts and observers expect a low turnout and a chamber that will support the policies of soldier-turned-President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi rather than challenge him.

The vote, for which some 300,000 police and soldiers are deployed to ensure its security, comes at a time when el-Sissi is struggling to revive an ailing economy and crush an Islamic insurgency while silencing domestic opposition.