Cairo, Aug 27 (IANS): Egyptian authorities have decided to refer 53.98 million eligible voters to prosecution for not showing up and casting their ballots in the recently held Senate polls.

Wednesday's decision came following a meeting of the board of the National Election Authority (NEA) to discuss mechanisms of implementing a penalty imposed on absent voters according to the Law on Exercising Political Rights, reports Xinhua news agency.

The NEA board agreed to prepare lists of the names of the eligible voters who missed the Senate elections to punish them according to the law, which states that the penalty is a fine that doesn't exceed 500 Egyptian pounds (about $31).

Last week, the NEA announced that the voter turnout in Egypt's Senate elections that were held earlier in August stood at 14.23 per cent, as about 9 million voters out of nearly 63 million eligible voters went to polling stations to elect their representatives at the country's first Senate, which was created in a 2019 constitutional amendment.

The new Senate will be an advisory body to the main House of Representatives without legislative authorities, replacing the Shoura Council, the upper house of Egypt's parliament that was dissolved in 2014.

Voters elected 200 members of the 300-seat chamber while the other 100 will be appointed by the President.