Thursday 12 January 2012

Socio-Economic Classification of Egypt's Electoral Constituencies

First, let me take my breath from writing that title.

Having done that, I just got a hold of a copy of report done by the Ahram Centre and the Danish Egyptian Dialogue Institute, that aimed to classify Egypt's electoral constituencies based on Socio-Economic lines.

The report argued that in the "more affluent clusters", the [liberal] Egyptian Bloc and Wafd Party had strong support vis-a-vis conservative/Islamist parties, concluding that the electorate were not only divided with regards to the role of religion in politics, but that the elections also contained an element of "class struggle." They also go on to say that "Islamist parties are stronger in poor constituencies", ascribing that mainly the social platforms and direct social presence in such regions by the aforementioned parties, and a more conservative nature in such less affluent areas.

The research divides Egypt into five "socio-economic clusters", and assigns each one of them the number of seats that such clusters represent in parliament: Rich (42), Middle One (82), Middle Two (86), Poor (74), Very Poor (48). 

Now, do note that this report was done in October, right before the elections. It will be very interesting to compare their general projected results with the actual ones, now that the elections are over.

You can find the full report here.

Click on the images to see the graphs in full size.




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