CAIRO: Voters in Giza were undecided on who to choose as they headed to the polls on the first day of run-offs at the second round of parliamentary elections.
Various polling stations witnessed average turnout as voters told Daily News Egypt they are still confused regarding who deserves their vote.
"I cannot find a candidate that will truly represent or serve me or the underprivileged in my constituency," Mahmoud Gaber, 29, said.
"All candidates are after their own interests, they try to serve people during the elections or bribe them but later we will never see them again and they will never help us if they win," he added.
Ahmed Moussa agreed, saying he doesn’t trust any of the candidates.
"I cast my vote the first time but then I regretted it. I just voted because I wanted to dodge the LE 500 fine that I cannot afford to pay, so I voted for anyone on the ballot," he said.
Moussa is from Bulaq but works in Dokki, both in Giza.
"To vote for someone I should know his history, background and program. And what I know about the candidates in my constituency doesn’t make me enthusiastic enough to vote for any of them," he added.
On the other hand, Dalal Hussein, a woman in her 50s voting at Abou Bakr Al-Sediq School in Dokki, said that she knows who the best candidate is for her constituency and voted for him.
"I came to vote in the run-offs for that candidate and encouraged my daughter to do so," Hussein said.
Hussein believes that people know who can best represent them in their constituencies in parliament.
“We can log onto the internet to know the background and read the CVs of the candidates. Even those who cannot do that, they ask others and discuss the background of the candidates with those who know," she said.
Around 4.2 million voters at Giza governorate will choose between candidates affiliated to the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), the Salafi Al-Nour Party and independent candidates.
Some of the independents are well known like Amr El-Choubaki, political analyst and president of the Alternatives Forum, and Mohamed Abdel Moneim Al-Sawy, culture icon and the founder of the independent cultural center Al-Sawy Culture Wheel.
"We don’t see liberals except on TV telling us not to vote for Islamists especially the FJP. But their main problem is that they don’t give us an alternative, they don’t have street credit and they don’t help the people like the FJP. Poor people can be abused by bribing them but that’s how it works to get a vote," Gaber said.
Gaber believes that the FJP made it to the run-offs because they know when to help the people. "They show up during a crisis," he said.
Meanwhile, Moussa said that this is only a ruse to win seats in parliament.
On the other hand, Sayed Abdel Aziz believes that the best MPs are not from new parties or first-time candidates.
"The best are those from the former NDP," Abdel Aziz, in his 60s, said. "Although the party was dissolved, I look for former members who either formed other parties or ran as independents."
Abdel Aziz said that former NDP members have the resources and the ability to help the people of their constituency.
"This is not a revolution, this is nonsense. Those people in Tahrir Square cost the country a lot, they are thugs and the officials should use force to disperse them," he said.
Moussa disagreed saying that the remnants of the former regime have enough resources to destroy the country and the revolution.
"I want to feel secure in the country, every now and then clashes break out. The remnants of the old regime have the resources to pay for thugs to destroy it but we know the way to Tahrir," he said.
