By Mohamed Effat and Heba Afify
MINYA: Voters, candidates and civil society groups said that Sunday’s parliamentary elections in Minya were free of clashes and forgery.
Khaled Kamal Makady, 65, was disappointed to find that no one was willing to pay for his vote.
“No one is paying the voters anything, I wish they were,” said Makady.
Samir Youssef, member of the Coalition of Independent Monitors from the Egyptian Association for Community Participation Enhancement, told Daily News Egypt that there were no clashes or violence reported in Minya, only some administrative problems.
Saad El-Katatni, a Muslim Brotherhood candidate and member of the last parliamentary round, said that the polls were free and fair, adding that he hopes the electoral process will continue this way.
“It’s a game in which somebody has to win and somebody has to lose and I will only accept the results if the game was played according to the rules of democracy,” he said.
El-Katatni complained that the polling stations were transferred from the areas where his supporters are based to far away locations and that the Supreme Electoral Commission did not inform the voters of the change, which he worries may cost him votes.
“We, as Egyptians, are negative about voting so if the people feel like they have to make an effort and it’s going to cost them money, they just won’t go,” said El-Katatni.
