3 things you need to know about Egypt's elections

Egypt's government on Monday scrambled to boost turnout in what appeared to be a widely disappointing election for the country's first parliament in three years.

Authorities gave civil servants time off, granted residents free public transportation in the city of Alexandria, and even announced that eligible voters with expired identification cards would be allowed to cast ballots on Monday.

The measures were declared after a first day of voting on Sunday yielded stunningly low numbers at the polls.

Sunday and Monday marked the first round of voting, which covered 14 of Egypt's 27 provinces. The second round will be held in November. The election process is set to end in December.

Less than 2 percent of voters had cast ballots by noon on Sunday, local media reported, and state television broadcast images of empty polling stations across the country.

On Monday, a headline on the front page of Egypt's largest privately owned newspaper read: "The people ignore parliamentary elections." Prime Minister Sherif Ismail fired back, claiming that voter turnout was between 15 percent and 20 percent.

Either way, Egypt is getting a new parliament. Here are three things you need to know about the elections and what they mean for the country.

1. Egyptians are voting in their first parliament since 2012.

Egypt has not had a legislative body since 2012, when the country's Supreme Constitutional Court dissolved the Islamist-dominated parliament.

That legislature was Egypt's first freely elected parliament since its 2011 Arab Spring uprising but was in session for only six months and had few powers.

Since then, the country has had a dramatic military coup, experienced a widespread crackdown on the opposition, rewritten its constitution and drafted a new parliamentary election law.

2. There is no real opposition running.

Because authorities have worked so hard to eliminate opposition to President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi since the coup two years ago - including by jailing dissidents, criminalizing protests and prosecuting journalists - genuine political life has been severely curtailed.

Sissi's primary target has been the Muslim Brotherhood and its Islamist allies, many of whom have been killed or arrested or have fled the country.

The Brotherhood was long Egypt's largest and most organized opposition movement, but now its grass-roots networks are dismantled and its leaders are in prison.

In addition to the Islamists, authorities have arrested and imprisoned the young leaders of Egypt's 2011 revolt.

Many of the activists who marched to Cairo's central Tahrir Square and organized the protests that drove out strongman Hosni Mubarak also are in prison.

As a result, most of the political coalitions contesting the elections are made up of pro-Sissi parties and personalities. As Nathan Brown, an Egypt expert at George Washington University, wrote last week: "The opposition cannot win, since there is no real opposition running."

3. Almost all the seats are for individual candidates.

A vast majority of the seats (75 percent) in parliament are now reserved for individual candidates who have no links to any political group.

The government says the new law was drafted to prevent a single party - such as Mubarak's now-defunct party or the Muslim Brotherhood's political wing - from dominating parliament. But critics say the system favors businessmen or wealthy individuals with ties to the state and that this will only strengthen the president.

Aside from the Brotherhood, which runs a web of charities across the country, Egypt has few strong political parties. But individual politicians - with significant patronage networks - can ensure political and tribal loyalty in their districts, marginalizing political parties.