CAIRO: Cairo’s third constituency is witnessing fierce competition between Al-Adl’s candidate Moustafa El-Naggar and independent Salafi candidate Mohamed Yousry, who are vying for the professional seat representing Nasr City and the Fifth Settlement.
In the first round of elections last week, El-Naggar earned 68,810 votes, followed by Yousry who earned 48,921 votes.
Yousry joined forces with the Muslim Brotherhood’ Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) candidate, Essam Mokhtar, who is in the run-offs for the workers seat, appearing on the same banners and flyers around the constituency.
According to El-Naggar, there are numerous violations by Yousry and Mokhtar with unlawful campaigning taking place outside polling stations. On Monday morning, El-Naggar said he took legal action against these violations.
A smear campaign was launched against El-Naggar, with flyers circulating claiming that he is supported by the church, urging voters “not to let Islam down and vote for the renowned scholar Mohamed Yousry,” in addition to claims that he is buying votes.
Judge Yasser Youssef, who heads one of the polling stations in Nasr City, said that he has witnessed one violation.
“A lady came in to vote carrying the ballot sample marked with the FJP and Salafi candidates, I took the necessary measures and legal procedures and she was not allowed to vote,” he explained.
Campaigning outside polling stations is a misdemeanor; however the judge has authority only within the boundaries of the station. The police officer outside this polling station told Daily News Egypt that any violation should be reported to the police station and they take the necessary measures.
FJP has set up a desk outside numerous polling stations to help people find their polling stations, in order to make the electoral process smoother.
Sherif Salaheldin, engineer and member of the FJP, explained that they are providing a service for the people, whether they’re voting for them or not.
“I don’t say the name of my candidate or try to influence the voter by any means,” said Salaheldin.
“There is no campaigning whatsoever involved, we just write them the necessary information on a plain piece of paper,” he added.
El-Naggar reported that there were buses with Yousry’s and Mokhtar’s pictures bringing in people to polling stations.
However, Salaheldin denied such claims. “I have been going around the constituency since the first day of elections and have not seen this and this is not something that we do since we respect the law.”
“Some people car pool and come together but they are not brought in by a certain candidate,” he added.
The accusations also went into the other direction, with Youssry saying he planned to take legal action against “his competitor”. However, state-run Al-Ahram reported on Tuesday that Youssry decided against that after learning that the reports about the alleged violations were a result of a misunderstanding.
Youssry couldn’t be immediately reached by press time.
