• MB News
  • October 25, 2005
  • 2 minutes read

Groups are allowed to monitor election

Groups are allowed to monitor election

Groups are allowed to monitor election
Egyptian rights groups will be allowed to monitor parliamentary elections in November including watching vote counting, the committee overseeing the polls has said. Egyptian groups also monitored the September presidential vote and reported various irregularities and abuses,but not sufficient to alter the results. Unlike the presidential poll, where incumbent Hosni Mubarak was a virtually guaranteed winner, the parliamentary elections will be much more closely fought, and rights groups are concerned this could fuel abuses.

The election committee, headed by justice minister Mahmoud Aboul Leil, said national societies and institutions would be able to apply to monitor the polls, Egypt’s official Mena news agency reported.

Some opposition groups in Egypt have called for foreign monitoring of the vote.

Mubarak’s ruling National Democratic Party currently holds more than 85 per cent of the 444 seats in parliament.

Egyptian rights groups have already recruited thousands of monitors for the parliamentary polls which will be held in three phases, starting in November and lasting until early December.