CAIRO: With the first post-uprising parliamentary elections just around the corner, Egyptians are scrambling for a crash course in politics, mostly to overcome their general confusion.
To this end, two NGOs launched Egypt Electionnaire last Thursday.
Egypt Electionnaire is a website where users answer a series of questions, giving their views on 29 of the most debated issues in the political sphere, such as the nature of the civil state, freedom of belief and slums.
Users give their opinion by answering yes, no or neutral on each issue and their opinion is then compared with that of the 31 political parties contesting the coming elections.
The question on one of the issues, for instance, about women in leadership roles is: “Women have the right to hold the presidency. Do you agree?”
“The tool is meant to offer background information before you go to the ballot box,” as stated on the website.
The project is collaboration between the Arab Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) and Media in Cooperation and Transition (MICT), an NGO based in Berlin.
Egypt Electionnaire “will not constrain any of the voters’ options. In fact, it will encourage discussion on political education in Egypt and will stimulate public debate,” ANHRI explained in a statement.
“This project will help fill the information gap regarding the general elections, which will be free for the first time. Moreover, Electionnaire … will use the method of direct analysis for the political content and thus will provide sound political education,” ANHRI added.
At a roundtable meeting last June a set of these key issues were formulated as questions and compiled in a questionnaire. This questionnaire was then circulated among the 31 main parties of Egypt.
The website also includes profiles of the 31 political parties running in the upcoming elections, including thorough explanations of their positions on the 29 issues.
The Electionnaire concept is based on an idea first developed in 1989 by the Dutch Instituut voor Publiek en Politiek (IPP) under the name “Stem Wijzer” (voting guide).
Since 1998 similar applications have gone online in various nations, mostly in Europe, but also in Asian countries including South Korea and Bhutan. Since 2005, MICT has produced Electionnaires for Iraq, Sudan, and Tunisia.
Electionnaire is part of the Egypt Votes website, a forum for Egyptian young journalists reporting from all around the country about the upcoming elections which kick off later this month.
