The voter turnout for the first round runoffs in Egypt's parliamentary election has been as low as 21.7 percent, the country's election authority says.

The Egypt High Elections Committee announced Friday that only 21.7 percent voted in this week's runoffs that took place across 14 provinces where 418 candidates competed for over 200 seats.

The poll to elect the 596 members of the lower house of parliament is being staged in two phases. The second round across the North African country's remaining 13 provinces will be held on November 22-23 and a run-off, if necessary, on December 1-2.

The main elections were held on October 18-19, with a turnout of nearly 26.6 percent.

The main opposition Muslim Brotherhood, which won almost half of the seats in the parliament in 2011, had been banned from the vote. Supporters of several other political factions have also boycotted the elections.

Egypt has had no parliament since 2012, when a court dissolved the democratically-elected chamber, comprised mainly of Brotherhood members.

Since Mohamed Morsi, the country’s first democratically-elected president, was toppled by the military under the leadership of Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in July 2013, the government has overseen a crackdown targeting Brotherhood supporters and other critics.