CAIRO: Despite minor violations, the Egyptian people were the clear winners of the electoral battle, a coalition of election monitoring organizations said Thursday.
Magdy Abdel-Hamid, coordinator of the Independent Coalition of Election Monitoring, described the elections as the “the overture of the battle for democracy,” during a press conference held Thursday to discuss observations of the first round of polling of the 2011 parliamentary elections,
The coalition comprises the Egyptian Association for Community Participation Enhancement, the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies and the Center of Appropriate Communication Techniques for Development.
The conference addressed irregularities and violations that occurred in the period leading up to and during the first round that took place on Nov. 28-29, both on the ground and in the media, as well as violations that took place against women.
“In 2010 we monitored the parliamentary elections, and fought a serious battle to affirm the role of civil society,” said Abdel-Hamid. “[We] were the only ones that proved 2010 elections were fraudulent.”
Although the coalition wasn’t successful in annulling the results, it did lay the ground work for “preparing for the revolution,” he added.
He noted two positive issues about the 2011 elections, the first being turnout, an estimate of 60-70 percent. “Egyptians have not been participating during the past 60 years, not out of apathy but out of exclusion,” he said explaining that people felt for the first time that their vote actually mattered.
Secondly, the state, represented in the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, had no intention to commit fraud, he added.
Supreme Electoral Commission blunders
Abdel-Hamid however warned of mistakes relating to the role and position of the Supreme Electoral Commission, noting that it was not independent nor neutral nor sufficiently authorized, with SCAF shadow running most of the operation.
“SEC wasn’t as ready to hold elections, as we previously warned … we asked that SEC remain completely dedicated, not comprised of busy judges who didn’t give the electoral process enough time,” he said.
Ahmed Fawzy, field-work manager for the coalition agreed, saying that SEC was not ready and that the coalition had called for a one-month postponement, which was ignored by SCAF.
He also noted that organization was the joint responsibility of SEC and the Ministry of the Interior.
“The interior ministry is responsible for several abuses; such as discovery of stamped ballots in different governorates before the elections [in the Red Sea, and Luxor],” Fawzy noted, “also the late arrival of ballots to some stations until 12 pm [in Fayoum and Assiut].”
He also remarked that many polling stations weren’t ready to receive voters – having called for stations to be expanded in proportion to the size of voters – while some didn’t have phosphoric ink or proper privacy measures.
Fawzy particularly noted the inhumane conditions provided for election workers, prompting some in turn to direct voters to make certain choices, or particularly allowing some candidates’ campaigners to work inside polling stations.
“The Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) was nearly a partner in running the electoral process in some stations,” he said.
Fawzy also criticized the Salafi Al-Nour Party for severe campaigning violations, especially hosting web pages warning Egyptians of “voting for the crusading bloc championed by the Church,” in reference to the liberal Egyptian Bloc.
“In spite of the other sides’ trespasses, this [particular one] took it too far and called for religious strife,” he said.
Fawzy also said that electoral bribes were observed to have been made by almost all parties on the scene (including FJP, Al-Wafd, and Al-Wassat), and that almost every bloc had far surpassed the limited campaign budget ceiling of LE 500,000, except for the Revolution Continues Coalition.
Speaking for the role of women, Azza Kamel, a member of the coalition, said that women’s participation as candidates was minimal, with only 15 percent on the lists and around 6.3 percent as individuals.
She also warned of FJP abusing illiterate female voters by assisting them at the poll stations for directions in return of direct campaigning, and Al-Nour’s usage of apostasy claims against those who vote for non-Islamists.
Kamel claimed that a woman wearing the niqab had attempted to vote using 15 different IDs in Assiut.
Media
Mona Nader, another coalition member, said media performance was a reflection of reality.
“Up until 24 hours before election campaigning didn’t stop” as stipulated by SEC regulations. When channels or newspapers stopped running ads, they hosted politicized content, such as reports against Islamists’ impact on tourism, or liberals’ impact on morals.
“We have to ask the press and the media whether they were truly committed to the 48-hour blackout or not. … All media, including FJP and Wafd newspapers, and 25TV, made sure they were campaigning in the last 24 hours,” Kamel said.
She said politicized media magnified abuses committed by one side and turned a blind eye to the other’s. “Perhaps Al-Shorouk was the only paper that listed all abuses in all locations by all players.”
Kamel also criticized how some media incited religious strife, some unknowingly, using sensational headlines.
The coalition members’ recommendations included the investigation of all abuses especially regarding religious slogans and campaign budgeting, cancelling all former electoral legislation and writing new and clear laws, creating a new non-judicial based SEC, and allowing electronic voting.
“Religious slogans have to be clearly defined and campaign funding must be permitted only through monitored bank accounts,” said Fawzy.
“The trespasses that happened on first two days do not affect or null the electoral process, but they do affect some of the results, and will have to be tackled in the coming rounds,” he said.
