By Sarah Carr
CAIRO: The results of the first round of voting in the parliamentary elections were announced Tuesday evening, as civil society groups and opposition parties reiterated allegations that voting was marred by serious electoral violations.
Opposition party Al-Wafd is calling for a cancellation of the elections. The Muslim Brotherhood (MB), which emerged from the first round of voting with zero seats, and Al-Wafd announced Wednesday evening that they will withdraw from the elections ahead of Sunday’s run-off.
Mohamed Badie, head of the MB — which had 88 seats in the outgoing parliament — was expected to confirm the group’s withdrawal later in the day.
Al-Wafd’s secretary general Mounir Fakhir Abdel Nour told AFP: “We will withdraw from all the elections. The two [Al-Wafd candidates] who won seats in the first round will also withdraw.”
The ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) won 217 seats, while only five seats were shared by Al-Wafd, Al-Tagammu, Al-Ghad and El-Adala opposition parties.
The run-off elections on Dec. 5 were due to include a competition between 377 NDP candidates, 140 independents, 26 MB-affiliated independent candidates, nine Al-Wafd candidates, six members of Al-Tagammu, and one candidate from El-Salam party.
Mobile phone videos of ballot box stuffing and polling station violence have flooded the internet since Sunday’s vote.
Amnesty International (AI) has called on the government not to ignore “the damning footage of violence and intimidation.”
“[The Egyptian authorities] must give clear instructions to their security forces to protect voters and uphold their rights — and that of candidates — without discrimination during the run-off on Dec. 5 if further violence and human rights abuses, such as those that occurred on Sunday, are to be avoided,” said Malcolm Smart, AI’s director for the Middle East and North Africa, in a press release issued Tuesday.
Supreme Electoral Commission (SEC) spokesman Sameh El-Kashef said during a press conference on Tuesday night that, while some “transgressions” did occur, they “did not undermine the probity and integrity of the first round results.”
“The SEC categorically rejects claims that forgery attempts which took place reflect the overall [nature] of this round of the elections” El-Kashef told reporters, adding that “only 1,298 of 89,588 ballot boxes (1.4 percent) were eliminated.”
While the voting process was “satisfactory in the majority of polling stations,” the “feverish spirit of competition” amongst some candidates led to illegal behavior “aimed at influencing voters or changing the final result,” the SEC spokesman said.
The SEC divided the complaints it received into four categories: disturbances in polling stations; vote forgery; prevention of candidates’ representatives from entering polling stations, and prevention of civil society observers and media members from entering polling stations.
Polling stations were closed for “short periods of time” the SEC said, in order to protect the lives of voters and station officials during disturbances. The SEC held ballot boxes in some of these constituencies void after disturbances caused by candidates’ supporters.
A total of 1,053 ballot boxes were excluded from the final results after the SEC upheld allegations of fraud.
Numerous candidates’ representatives complained that they were denied entry into polling stations on election day, despite having obtained the accreditation that empowered them to do so beforehand.
Having examined such complaints, the SEC found that, as a result of either “ignorance of the law or disorganization,” some representatives were attempting to enter polling stations in constituencies where they were not registered.
Some complaints were, however, well grounded. As a result, the SEC made telephone calls to ensure that the representatives were granted access to the polling stations.
The SEC “strove from the beginning to grant the largest number possible of permits to civil society and the media.”
Approximately 6,130 civil society representatives were given permits to monitor the elections in 9,777 polling stations, while 498 foreign correspondents were granted permits to cover the elections.
El-Kashef predicted that less disturbances will occur during Sunday’s run-off elections because of the reduction in the total number of candidates still competing.
He called on voters, candidates and candidates’ supporters to “observe the law,” adding that the security bodies carried out their role with “neutrality and objectivity.”
The NDP fielded more than 800 candidates for parliament’s 508 elected seats.
AFP reported that one of the founders of Al-Tagammu, former MP El-Badri Farghali, resigned along with 150 other party members in Port Said, accusing the party’s president of “making [the party] a branch of the NDP.” –Additional reporting by AFP
