By Ahmed Tahoun
Ministry of Interior Magdy Abdel Gahaffar reviewed a plan to secure the upcoming parliamentary elections and ensure that all the forces involved understand the tasks assigned to them, in coordination and cooperation with the armed forces.
The discussion came during a Tuesday meeting with the minister’s aides and concerned security managers, to review the plan for securing the first phase of the upcoming parliamentary elections, said a ministerial statement.
Abdel Ghaffar also ordered the establishment of a central operations room and linking it to operating rooms in all sectors of the ministry to receive information and make decisions in accordance with events or emergency situations.
“The police force is a national property of the great Egyptian people, and protects its will and secures its right to complete the third pillar of the roadmap, and exerts all its efforts and faces all obstacles to establish a democratic state,” Abdel Ghaffar said.
He further affirmed that the ministry’s policy is to secure the course of the electoral process in its various stages, with full commitment and complete impartiality, as well as to provide a safe environment for citizens is order to cast their votes in complete freedom.
Abdel Ghaffar noted that the voting process would be facilitated through positive treatment and the provision of equipment for the elderly and people with special needs so they can exercise their constitutional right.
He pointed out that the role of the police is limited to protecting voters, and will not intervene in the electoral process or interfere in their activities in any form. Their presence will be limited to outside the voting committees.
Abdel Ghaffar further stressed the forces’ readiness to face any emergency security situations, noting that they would tighten controls on the roads leading to the voting committees.
Areas around voting committees are secured by security services through fast-moving groups of Central Security Forces and criminal investigation forces, he added.
