ALEXANDRIA: Parliamentary elections in Alexandria started early on Monday where 402 candidates are competing over eight individual seats while 33 lists are vying for 16 seats throughout the governorate.
The heated competition is in the second constituency of El-Raml and Sidi Gaber in the individual seat between Judge Mahmoud El-Khodeiry and ex-NDP leader Tarek Talaat Mostafa. The Freedom and Justice Party’s leading member Hamdy Hassan is also in a heated race against the Salafi Al-Nour Party candidate Essam Hassanien.
The heavy rain did not deter voters from waiting for hours outside polling stations.
In the fourth constituency in front of Gamal El-Din El-Afghany Preparatory School, Sanaa Nabil, a nun in her 60s, said she came for the second time to vote after the referendum "because my voice now has value, and I’m here today because I am Egyptian."
The polling stations were calm with strong army presence. Police could hardly be seen.
Cars drove through the fourth constituency, promoting Hassanien, as supporters of the FJP, Al-Nour and the Egypt Nationalist Party were seen campaigning outside some polling stations.
"Until now things are calm and civilized," FJP’s Alexandria coordinator Hussein Ibrahim told Daily News Egypt in front of El-Laban Primary School, adding that the party will be satisfied with any results as long as they represent the people’s will.
A reporter from Nile News Channel was denied entry to a polling station in El-Gamarek district.
In its second report regarding the elections in Alexandria, El-Shehab Center for Human Rights documented more violations as one judge was not aware of the voting process and a rights activist guided him through it.
The report also documents an incident where a deceased person’s name (El-Sayed Ragab Othamn Khattab, who died in September) was on the electoral list.
The center also found that some polling stations did not have phosphoric ink until 9:30 am, while the ballots arrived late in other polling stations.
One of the candidates of the Egypt Nationalist Party list Mohamed Farouk Abo Zeid was reportedly carrying a gun, while in another polling station the ballot boxes were locked although voters were still coming in.
The report documented an employee voting on behalf of other voters in addition to busses run by Al-Nour Party transporting voters to polling stations.
Tarek Talaat Moustafa, a candidate running for an individual seat, was reportedly bribing voters, in addition to using a laptop inside a polling station to help voters obtain voting information and directing them to vote for him.
"All the violations are logical up until now and predominantly logistical," head of El-Shebab Center, lawyer Khalaf Bayoumi told DNE, adding that the army was moderating the process confidently and quietly.
"It seems that the army wanted to fix the problems with the people [citing clashes in Tahrir]," he said, citing the complete absence of candidate representatives except for the FJP and Al-Noor Party.
Bayoumi said that the most heated competition is between Al-Khodeiry and Moustafa, who is rumored to have brought in people from Cairo for "group voting."
"We are still not sure if those people seen in El-Rehab busses coming from Cairo, were coming for publicity or if they were deliberately registered in Alexandria to vote for him," he added.
He also noted that the fierce competition between the Al-Nour Party and FJP overshadowed the weak presence of other political forces.
Head of the Salafi Al-Nour, Emad Abdel Ghafour, criticized the performance of his party, saying that their performance in Cairo was very bad, and below average in Alexandria.
He said that this could be due to lack of experience.
"The high voter turnout proves that people [have the will to vote]," a Muslim Brotherhood leader told DNE, criticizing remarks by SCAF General Mamdouh Shahin who said that the upcoming parliament does not have the power to form a government.
"He thinks the upcoming parliament will be décor, but this is not going to happen," he added.
