Just days before parliamentary elections, Egyptians are back on Tahrir Square. And can you blame them? Hosni Mubarak is gone, but not his ways of ruling the country. Notwithstanding multiple protests, the Mubarak-era politicians were allowed by a court to stand in upcoming elections.

But this is not the only problem with these parliamentary elections. They are so complicated it is unclear whether even politicians understand what is going on, not to mention the electorate.

If you are an Egyptian citizen who genuinely would like to vote, there are several things you have to figure out:

1) When is Election Day?

This question sounds simple for most elections in the world, but Egypt decided to be different. Parliamentary elections will be held on 3 different dates: 28 November, 14 December or 3 January, depending on which district of Egypt you live in. It might happen that you will vote on 28 November while your neighbor will cast a ballot on 3 January.

2) Who is standing in the elections?

Egyptians voters have more than 6,700 candidates to choose from. They represent almost 50 different political parties, most of them not even a year old, and independent candidates. Some political parties are grouped into coalitions, but parties often change their mind, which coalition they think they should belong to, and it’s difficult if not impossible to keep track on their regroupings.

3) How to vote?

I will not be surprised to see the confused faces of voters when they receive their ballots. The vote will need to be casted for two candidates as well as for a party list. It is because Egypt adopted a mixture of majority and proportional-representation systems . The party candidates can choose to either be elected under the majority or proportional system, but not both. So if you vote for X, the head of the Y party, under majority system, it does not mean you have voted for the Y party list under the proportional system. That will require another vote from you.

4) Why will you have to vote in one district under majority system and in another district under proportional system?

This is another conundrum Egyptian voters will find themselves in. Each area is divided into a different number of districts for the majority and proportional system. So Cairo, for example, has been divided into nine districts for the majority system, but only four for the proportional one. But this doesn’t mean you’ll have to vote in different polling stations.

5) If you would like to vote for a female candidate…

…then you are not in luck. Out of 6,700 candidates, only two (!) are women. During Egypt's last round of parliamentary elections in 2010, 64 seats (out of 166) were reserved for female candidates. However, that quota has since been canceled. According to the new rules, party lists are required to field at least one female candidate, but her name can be placed anywhere on the list, giving women no chance to be elected.

So weeks, if not months, of brain work and you have cast your vote after successfully figuring out the date you are entitled to vote, which candidates and political parties are the best, and you are sitting on your sofa with a cup of tea and a biscuit waiting anxiously for the results to be announced. But it is no time to relax. There may be more surprises. Such as:

6) Why was the person you voted for, and who won the majority, eliminated from participating in the run off?

While in many countries there are quotas for women, in Egypt there are now quotas for so-called worker and farmer candidates. Fifty per cent of seats are reserved for them. This means that a candidate could win a majority of votes, but still lose the election, letting the other candidates who did not receive the majority participate in a run-off.

This new electoral system might produce very interesting results when a leader of a political party is not elected at all (if he decides to participate in elections under majority system), while several of his party’s subordinates will get their seats in parliament after being voted on the party list under the proportional system. As candidates are not allowed to run under both systems, the leaders of the parties will have a very difficult choice to make.

­The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.