Egyptians in 15 provinces begin voting in staggered parliamentary election

An Egyptian traffic policeman looks at a woman standing outside the entrance of a polling center, before polls open at the first round of the parliamentary election in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2015. Arabic on the banner, center, reads, "Your vote is important and you will be judged for not giving it." (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty) (The Associated Press)

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An Egyptian voter passes security forces to cast ballot at a polling station during the Egyptian parliamentary election in Alexandria, Egypt, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2015. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar) (The Associated Press)

An Egyptian woman enters a polling center as an army soldier stands guard during the Egyptian parliamentary election in Alexandria, Egypt, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2015. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar) (The Associated Press)

CAIRO – Egyptians are voting in the nation's first parliamentary election since the military's 2013 ouster of Egypt's first freely elected president and the election a year later of the general who removed him.

Egyptians residing abroad began voting Saturday and will continue Sunday, the first of two days of voting in 15 provinces, including Cairo's twin city of Giza. Voting in Egypt's 13 other provinces will be on Nov. 22-23.

Many analysts and observers expect a low turnout and a chamber that will support the policies of soldier-turned-President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi rather than challenge him.

The vote, for which some 300,000 police and soldiers are deployed to ensure its security, comes at a time when el-Sissi is struggling to revive an ailing economy and crush an Islamic insurgency while silencing domestic opposition.