Polling stations opened at 9:00 am local time (0700 GMT) to kick off the multi-week election, which will fill 568 of the 596 seats in the lower house of parliament, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.
Voting will take place in stages across various regions, with some areas, including Cairo, voting as late as November 24.
In addition to the elected seats, 28 lawmakers will be appointed directly by Sisi, who assumed power in 2013 after overthrowing Islamist President Mohamed Morsi. Egyptians abroad were the first to cast their ballots, voting on Friday and Saturday. The election is structured so that half of the seats are filled through closed party lists, with a quarter reserved for women, and the other half by individual candidates.
The elections come just two months after a lackluster turnout in the Senate elections, where the pro-government "National List for Egypt" coalition dominated. Many expect this coalition to maintain its stronghold in the parliamentary race as well. Final results are anticipated by December 25.
The pro-Sisi Mostaqbal Watan (Nation's Future) party and the National Front party -- headed by former minister Essam al-Gazzar -- lead the 12-member coalition.
Gazzar's newly formed party brings together former government officials and has the financial backing of business tycoon Ibrahim al-Organi, a close Sisi ally.
Opposition groups, meanwhile, remain divided. Some parties are running independently while others have joined pro-government lists.
Analysts said the timing of the elections gives them unusual weight as they will be the last before Sisi's third and final term ends in 2030.
"Sisi needs a parliament he can fully control," Timothy Kaldas of the Washington-based Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, told AFP.
"If he wants to stay in power beyond 2030, it's this next parliament that would have to initiate any constitutional changes to make that possible," he said.
Under the 2019 constitutional amendments, Sisi's term was extended from four to six years and his previous term was retroactively counted as his first, allowing him to stay in office until 2030.
Sisi's administration, long maligned for its rights record, launched a national dialogue in 2022 in an apparent overture to the country's decimated opposition.
But the years since have seen a widening crackdown on dissent, according to rights groups, who estimate that tens of thousands of political prisoners remain behind bars.
