CAIRO: Egyptians trickled in to polling stations Sunday to elect a new Parliament that will tighten President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi’s grip on power.

The vote for the 596-member Parliament will be staged in two phases ending on Dec. 2, with Egyptians abroad casting their votes for the first round from Saturday.

But with an absence of opposition parties — including the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood — polling has inspired none of the enthusiasm witnessed for Egypt’s first democratic elections in 2011.

Voting was listless in the first few hours in 14 of the 27 provinces where polling will be held over two days.

“It’s expected to rise by the end of the day as many voters are working,” Refaat Komsan, an adviser to the prime minister, told a news conference earlier in the day.

“Also as temperatures fall, we expect voters to come out and vote.”

Most of the more than 5,000 candidates in the polls overwhelmingly support El-Sisi and are expected to dominate Parliament.

Cairo resident Islam Ahmed, who said he would not be voting, was unmoved by polling getting underway.

“I think the turnout will be low. I don’t know any candidate in my constituency... many people don’t know candidates in their constituencies,” he said.

Hazem Hosny, political science professor at Cairo University said: “It’s really a parliament... to keep things as they are, to give an image of democracy.”

Many Egyptians tired of political turmoil since the 2011 ouster of veteran leader Hosni Mubarak support El-Sisi, who has vowed to revive an ailing economy and restore stability amid a deadly crackdown targeting Mursi supporters.

President Mursi, was ousted on July 3, 2013, after mass street protests against his divisive year-long rule. El-Sisi, meanwhile, won a presidential election in 2014.

“Sissi is our soul... without him we would have been migrants like those from other countries around us,” said Buthaina Shehata after she cast her vote.

Scores of policemen and soldiers have been killed in jihadist attacks since the crackdown on Islamists began, with the Egyptian affiliate of the Daesh leading a deadly insurgency in North Sinai.

The Brotherhood dominated the last assembly but is now banned after being blacklisted as a “terrorist organization,” while leftist and secular movements that led the 2011 uprising are boycotting or are badly represented in the polls.

The Brotherhood had been the main opposition force for decades, fielding candidates in parliamentary elections under Mubarak despite an official ban.

Its party took 44 percent of seats in the first free democratic elections following Mubarak’s ouster.

That Parliament was dissolved in June 2012, but the Brotherhood’s popularity shone through days later when Mursi, a civilian, was elected, putting an end to six decades of presidents coming from military ranks.

Sissi called on citizens to vote as he appeared on television Saturday.

“Celebrate the choice of representatives and make the right choice,” he said.

“I am expecting Egyptian youth to be the driving force in this celebration of democracy.”

Of the 596 lawmakers being elected, 448 will be voted in as independents, 120 on party lists, and 28 will be presidential appointees.

About 55 million voters are eligible to vote in the two-stage election.

Any run-off in the first phase will be contested on Oct. 27-28. The second phase starts on Nov. 21.