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Egyptian NGOs call for change in third round of elections
Egyptian NGOs call for change in third round of elections
The NGOs involved in monitoring Egypt’s parliamentary elections have released a statement on the abuses that took place and made demands on how the third and final round should be held.
Two interesting recommendations stand out: they are asking President Mubarak to “announce his full responsibility” for the third rou
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Tuesday, November 29,2005 00:00 | |||||||
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Egyptian NGOs call for change in third round of elections The NGOs involved in monitoring Egypt’s parliamentary elections have released a statement on the abuses that took place and made demands on how the third and final round should be held. Two interesting recommendations stand out: they are asking President Mubarak to “announce his full responsibility” for the third round, and asking the Muslim Brotherhood to “stop using religion and its slogans to make gains” and “to refrain from manipulating religious feelings.” I find it rather odd that they are asking a religious party to stop using religious slogans, but this echoes the concerns we’ve been hearing all week from the Egyptian punditocracy across the political spectrum.
The National Campaign for Monitoring the Elections and the Arab Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession, the Shadow Committee for Election Monitoring coordinator, held a press conference on 27 November 2005 to announce the results of monitoring the parliament phase II re-election 2005. Statement Through our monitors’ comments and statements about the phase re-election of the 2005 parliament elections, we can say that this round was dominated by a number of characteristics, the most significant of which are as follows: 1. Egyptian security forces prevented voters from their Constitutional right to vote, select and participate in government. Security forces imposed a security belt and a siege around many constituencies and polling stations, which even expanded to surround complete villages in some cases. These aspects characterizing this round of the parliament election show that the round lacked many of the objective criteria of the election process and took place in a climate that can be described as unhealthy and lacking in honesty and ethics, deviates from the concept of democracy and the civil state. Criticism can not be restricted to one party in particular of the parties involved in the election process. All parties participated in varying degrees to creating this climate which renders the election process void. It no longer expresses the real will of the voters. Thus, in the light of the monitored incidents, we call upon all parties to seek a code of ethics that puts an end to such practices, including acts of violence, buying votes, manipulating religious sentiments or preventing voters from exercising their Constitutional rights. The Egyptian people should not be treated as goods in a market regardless of the price. Nobody should seek to manipulate the religious or the worldly hopes of the people. We also call upon the President to prove, rather than merely being the president of the ruling party, that he is the president of all the various sects and affiliations that the Arab Republic of Egypt encompasses. We call upon the Minister of Justice, the chairman of the Supreme Committee of Parliament Election, the competing parties and the Muslim Brotherhood to take the necessary measures that will control and minimize the unhealthy climate that characterized this round and prevent it from prevailing over the third round. For these reasons, we recommend the following: Finally, the National Campaign for Monitoring the Election and the Arab Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession, the coordinator of the Shadow Committee to Monitor the Election, express their support to the independent judges supervising the election and their honorable positions represented by Counselor Dr. Noha al-Zeini. We announce that we have filed two complaints to the Minister of Justice (in his capacity as the chairman of the Supreme Committee for Parliament Election) and the Prosecutor General requesting an investigation concerning the violations mentioned in Counselor Noha al-Zeini’s memo. The testimony of Counselor al-Zeini and other judges supervising the election should be heard, as well as the testimony of security personnel. Ballot boxes, as well as the vote counting results signed by sub-committee heads, should be kept in custody |
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