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Former presidential scientific advisor Essam Heggy announced on Tuesday that a number of figures from across the political spectrum will form a committee to prepare a presidential programme to be adopted by any potential candidate in the 2018 presidential elections.

The aim of the initiative is to draw up a programme under the slogan "fight poverty, ignorance and disease," to be adopted by potential candidates and implemented as state policies once they get into office, Heggy said in a statement on his Facebook page.

The government of Prime Minister Sherif Ismail will face its first vote of confidence in parliament next week.

Parliament deputy speaker Al-Sayed Al-Sherif told reporters this week that Prime Minister Ismail will come to parliament next Wednesday to respond to MPs' comments on his government's policy statement, which he delivered before parliament 27 March.

"At the end of his response, MPs will be required to grant or withhold confidence in Ismail's government," said Al-Sherif.

As the first round of Egypt's parliamentary elections came to a close on Monday night, turnout appeared weak for the second consecutive day, highlighting growing disillusionment since the army seized power in 2013.

Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said turnout on Sunday had been just 15-16 percent, but that it should rise after public sector workers were given a half-day off to vote.

Many Egyptian voters shunned the first phase of a parliamentary election on Sunday that President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has hailed as a milestone on the road to democracy but his critics have branded as a sham.

Polling stations visited by Reuters correspondents pointed to a turnout of around 10 percent, in sharp contrast to the long lines that formed in the 2012 election, suggesting that Sisi, who has enjoyed cult-like adulation, is losing popularity.

Polling stations have closed their doors at 9pm Sunday on the first day of Egypt’s long-awaited 2015 parliamentary elections after a slow but smooth start to polling.

Abdullah Fathi, head of the Judges' Club - an unofficial but powerful body that represents the majority of Egypt's judges - told Al Hayat TV that the club's reports of polling station monitoring labelled the vote turnout "clearly and unjustifiably weak."

On Friday, 1677 judges arrived in Alexandria to supervise the elections that are due to take place on Sunday and Monday, Al-Ahram's Arabic news website reported.

Judges from different judicial bodies (judges, State Council members, prosecutors and administrative prosecutors) will be distributed on Saturday to 1677 polling stations in 10 constituencies in Alexandria.

A total of 16,000 members from different judicial bodies will supervise polling stations during the two phases in Egypt.

Egypt’s Socialist Popular Alliance Party (SPAP) will launch on Sunday evening a new campaign called “If You Elect Them” to warn voters of the dangers of electing to parliament members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood and Hosni Mubarak’s dissolved National Democratic Party (NDP).

Medhat El-Zahed, acting chair member of the SPAP, said in a press conference on Wednesday that the party “is participating to fight against the return of the old faces of Mubarak and political Islam.”

Some 27,402,353 voters are registered to take part in the elections first round due to start 18 October in Egypt, stated the Higher Elections Commitee (HEC) Saturday.

The first round will cover 14 governorates that include a total of 103 electoral constituencies.

Egyptians aboard will vote in the first round 17 October.

According to HEC spokesperson Omar Marawan, voters include 13,257,507 women and 14,144,846 men.

The first round will choose 226 MPs of a total of 596. There are 2,573 electoral candidates for the first round.

Egypt’s Socialist Popular Alliance Party (SPAP) announced Wednesday the features of their electoral programme for the upcoming elections set to take place in October and November.

“The party’s electoral programme relies on the social and democracy goals represented by the January 25 Revolution and its extension in June 30,” Medhat El-Zahed, acting chairman of the SPAP, said in a press conference.