Egypt’s Elections Rigged Before, During and After

A sweeping victory – if that is what one can label Egypt’s ruling NDP’s rigged win – was announced by the Higher Election Commission today where they confirmed the NDP had secured an 83% majority of the votes of the 518 seats at stake. An embarrassing 96% will be announced if the elected independents decide to re-enrol with the NDP.

Following the boycott of the country’s largest and most popular opposition, the Muslim Brotherhood, the way was clear for the ruling party to contest against themselves for the remaining seats. The Wafd Party also announced its boycott.

Both groups chose to boycott after widespread rigging, fraud, and ballot stuffing, which dominated the first round of elections held on November 28, in an attempt to expose the country’s repression and corruption. The NDP’s intentions were evident with early rigging during the MB’s attempts to campaign in the run up to elections with an overwhelming 1400 MB supporters, campaigners and candidates being arbitrarily hauled in by security officials. Some still remain in custody. The heavy clampdown did not deter the MB’s decision to participate in the polls, believing it was a national duty to take part and call for peaceful reform in the country believing it would come about by being members of the parliament, its lawmaking and being part of the political arena.

Round one, however, with its arrogant and shameless frauds and violence against all opposition and the disregard to monitoring, triggered the group to announce it would boycott the runoff despite 27 candidates being allegeable to contest and vie for the remaining seats. Due to the blatant rigging not one MB member won a seat outright despite securing 88 seats in the 2005 elections which was monitored by the judiciary.

In a heightened step of rigging not only the nations will but of information, the regime deceivingly announced its majority win outlining that independents won seats, even going as far as purposely lying and announcing that MB candidate, Magdy Ashour, had secured one seat. 

The MB had decided it would boycott round two after 72% of its Shura Council opted to boycott the run in protest to the fraudulent tactics used by the government against the opposition. The regime was not satisfied with monopolizing the seats in an attempt to tame parliament for next year’s presidential election; it attempted to portray the MB as unsuccessful because they were not only able to hold onto their former seats but were not even able to secure one seat in the polls. Not only did MB candidate, Magdy Ashour, boycott the poll as agreed by the group but he was also detained by security forces on his return from an overnight stay in Alexandria and pressured into contesting in the runoff. Ashour did not succumb to the pressure and was thereby held against his will by security officials while many other MB members and members of his family were rounded up following orders by the Interior Ministry.

According to Engineer Khaled Salam, Ikhwanweb editor-in-chief, such allegations reveal the desperate extent the regime has reached in portraying itself as a democratic government. Salam added: ‘It seems that the government is unable to follow the simple rules of a democracy forgetting its avowals and assurances of running the elections with integrity, guaranteeing they would be free and fair.’