the latest report on the proceedings of the first Phase of Egypt’s legislative polls

Minute by Minute ,the Parliamentary Election coverage

30 MB Nominees Win in the Run-off Elections

Here,s the latest report on the proceedings of the first phase of Egypt’s legislative polls, which started today (Wednesday Nov. 9, 2005)
Muslim Brotherhood’s information committee (in south Cairo) said workers who are illegally registered  at electoral rolls are casting  their votes collectively in Helwan constituency. 
In constituency no. 24 (Helwan & Al Ma’sara) a number of buses carrying about 400 workers from  Shubra El Kheima’s Military Factory 27, after they were “shipped” from their workplace in order to collectively vote for Sayyed Mash’al (Minister of Military Production and National Democratic Party’s candidate in this constituency).  It’s worth mentioning that those workers were previously  registered at electoral rolls in an illegal fashion.

Meanwhile, at the beginning of voting process, judges at Saffeya Zaghloul constituency refused to register the number of  ballots at the formal record. The same was done by all supervising judges at constituency no. 23 (Al Ma’adi, Torah and Al Basateen). 

 Voting in 5 polling stations in constituency no. 24 (Helwan) was frozen and voters lined up outside till 11: 30 am, as judges in these stations (no. 9,26, 35,40 and 44) found out that the ballots therein   belong to another constituency (Mayo & El Tebbin). Thus all have to wait a long time !!    
A Suez governorate citizen was arrested for voting in Giza constituency assuming another person’s identity.   A number of NDP’s supporters in Giza shipped voters in vehicles to vote for NDP’ s candidates. Then those voters were taken to Abu El Einein Society for Services to get food supplies.  
Supporters of NDP’s contender in Al Saff, major general Saeed El Gammal, attacked and beat the representatives of Muslim Brotherhood’s candidate Shawqi  Dawood. The assault happened  at “Al Aqwaz” village, birthplace of NDP’s candidate. In addition, 10 lawyers were assaulted and denied access to the polling stations. As  a result, they headed for a police station and filed a formal complain. On his part, the Muslim Brotherhood candidate went to them to discern the whole matter.

In a polling station located at Al Hawamdeyya Girls Secondary Commercial School, a number of voters having pink electoral cards were restricted from casting their votes on the claim that their names are not registered in electoral rolls. Similar acts took place in the stations situated at Al Manawat, Kamwa and Om Khenan villages. Some representatives were denied access to the polling stations as well.  
10 unsealed ballots were found at Abu Al Nomros polling station (south Giza). Lawyers requested that the incident should be formally recorded and the judge agreed to their request.
The supervising judge in Abd El Meguid El Fiqi School polling station (south Giza) examined every ballot after being cast by the voter, claiming that he feared a voter might put two ballots instead of one; a matter which could influence the voters’ choice. 
Supporters of Adel Nasser, the NDP’s candidate at the southern Giza constituency of Mazghona, started to use the circulating cards in women’s polling stations in Al Shobak Al Gharbi district.
The supervising officer of the polling station no. 101, located at Gezra village (south Giza), allowed women to enter the station without seeing their Ids.   
In Mazghouna:  Neither the supervising judge nor the voters appeared at the polling station till 10:30 am.  
In Arab Abu Al Nomros: The supervising judge asked for 2 phone sets and a TV, which the NDP candidate, Muhammad El Fiqi, brought.  

 Muhammad Abu El Einein’s companies provided 40 buses to move voters to the polling stations in Giza and Al Doqqi in order to vote for Muhammad Abu El Einein and Amal Othman, the NDP’s candidates in the above mentioned constituencies. 

At Al Nozha and Al Marg,  polling stations that were due to be held at Al Tabari Al Hegaz were moved to Al Tabari Sheraton, which confused the voters. Besides, the Muslim Brotherhood contender Magdi Ashour’s representative was not allowed to attend the proceedings of candidacy forms counting at the onset of the polling station’s activities.    
At Al Ma’adi polling station no 23 and the one held at Al Ma’adi Secondary School, a great number of NDP’s candidate’s supporters were collectively registered. Problems resulting from preventing other candidates’ representatives from entering the polling stations in Tora Al Balad  were also detected.

At Al Ma’adi constituency, polling station no. 23 witnessed a knife fight broke out between supporters of  independent candidate businessman Akmal  Qertam (an NDP member) and NDP’s official contender Al Murshedi, after mass registration of Qertam’s supporters. Police forces did not take action to stop the fight. 

At Helwan’s polling station no. 44, located at Helwan Girls’ Secondary School, the judge closed the station. Other polling stations supervisors refused to sign the ballots, which paved the way to forgery by means of the circulating sheets.

At Helwan’s polling staion no 12, thousands of names were added to the electoral rolls using handwriting. 

At Al Nozha and Al Marg,  polling stations that were due to be held at Al Tabari Al Hegaz were moved to Al Tabari Sheraton, which confused the voters. Besides, the Muslim Brotherhood contender Magdi Ashour’s representative was not allowed to attend the proceedings of candidacy forms counting at the onset of the polling station’s activities.    
At Al Ma’adi polling station no 23 and the one held at Al Ma’adi Secondary School, a great number of NDP’s candidate’s supporters were collectively registered. Problems resulting from preventing other candidates’ representatives from entering the polling stations in Tora Al Balad  were also detected.
At Al Ma’adi constituency, polling station no. 23 witnessed a knife fight broke out between supporters of  independent candidate businessman Akmal  Qertam (an NDP member) and NDP’s official contender Al Murshedi, after mass registration of Qertam’s supporters. Police forces did not take action to stop the fight. 
At Helwan’s polling station no. 44, located at Helwan Girls’ Secondary School, the judge closed the station. Other polling stations supervisors refused to sign the ballots, which paved the way to forgery by means of the circulating sheets.

Polling station at Seif El Nasr estate, Mazghouna, Giza, remained closed till 10:30 am.

Women supporting Muslim Brotherhood had a highly distinguishable presence.

Employees at Ministry of Finance in Ismailia were mustered in coaches and moved to polling stations in Shubra’s Technical Institute constituency(north Cairo) to vote for Yossuf Botros Ghali, the NDP’s candidate. They were even given already-marked ballots to put in the box and bring the original ballot outside for 50 Egyptian pounds.    

In some villages, mayors and State Security officers openly warned voters of voting for the Muslim Brotherhood and opposition parties’ candidates. Amazingly enough,  threats were announced through loud speakers.
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Some police stations abstained from recording assaults made against supporters of opposition’s candidates

In Al Menofeya governorate, representatives of candidates were  denied access to the polling stations. Furthermore, Dr. Dosouqi Abd El Fattah, Mr. Muhammad El Khouli and a lawyer called Ali Khalil were beaten. The general proxy of Muslim Brotherhood’s representative was torn by a mayor’s deputy named Saeed Rashad Doma. Police stations refused to record the incidents.

In Assiut, an officer called Esam Ibrahim El Dosuqi brought six women “jailbirds” (among them was Sattota Sharaf, best known as Samra Sharaf) to the polling station in Al Khayyat School to intimidate the women voters.   

Ahmad Al Esawi Selim, the assistant secretary of National Democratic Party in Al Menofeya and  NDP’s candidate in Al Shuhadaa constituency, along with his supporters mustered outside Al Shaheed Ryad School polling station (Meet Shahala village) and attacked the Muslim Brotherhood candidates’ representatives.    
 

Supporters of Ansar Shahinaz (an NDP dissident) tried to move voters from other constituencies to Ahmad Lotfi El Sayed’s polling station in Al Manyal constituency, but thugs supporting the NDP obstructed them, and the two parties went into a hassle, which prevented voters from entering the polling station.

The prominent Muslim Brotherhood candidate in Al Ma’adi and Al Manyal constituency Dr. Muhammad Mansour’s number was changed from 10 to 9 in order to bring about confusion. 

 Five coaches owned by the Arab Contractors company moved to Nasr City carrying the company’s workers to vote for the NDP’s contender Mustafa Al Sallab. Other buses carried about 1500 people working at Al Sallab’s mega stores in Al Mansoura city to Nasr City polling stations to vote for their employer.

 A State Security officer intimidated voters and chased them with his red Suzuki car with a Cairo plate number 990221. 

Some coaches were moving great numbers of voters from Abu El Feda st., Zamalek, to two polling stations, located at Faculty of Fine Arts (Qasr El Nil constituency),  to vote for the NDP’s candidates. 

Candidates’ representatives were prevented from entering an eastern Cairo polling station for 20 min.
   

 Electoral card was thrown outside a polling station

An unsealed ballot was found outside the polling station no. 16 in Al Wasti constituency, Bani Suef.

 
Muslim Brotherhood candidate in Al Zaweya and Al Sharabeya constituency Dr. Mamdouh Mustafa Halawa’s number was changed from 19 to 18 without a prior note.

 
 All candidates’ representatives were requested to get out of  the polling station when Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak headed to cast his vote. They were allowed to return after he left the place. 

 In the Al Sharabeya constituency, Cairo:  The opening records were not signed by the candidates’ representatives in polling stations located at Abd El Aziz Gaweesh School; in Refa’a Al Tahtawi’s polling station, the judge closed it, then allowed the voters in the station one by one; in Belal Primary School, proxies were withdrawn and attached to the official record. In addition, the judges refused to let the women representatives sign the opening official records; other judges kicked out them. Note: All polling stations are not equipped with curtails or tables.    

Ali Radwan, The NDP’s contender at Al Sahel constituency, stormed into a polling station located at Al Sadat Industrial Secondary School and broke a glass ballot box. It’s worth mentioning that Al Sahel Hospital — at which Dr. Hazem Farouq, the Muslim Brotherhood’s candidate, worked – serves voters in this area.  

In Assiut, no opening records were written down at Al Quseya constituency’s polling stations no. 124 and 125. Moreover,  a number of thugs were present in front of Al Khayyat polling station.  

 In Bani Suef governoate, the supervising judge refused to  give the go-ahead to the voting process, claiming that the candidates’ representative were not there, though the Muslim Brotherhood candidate’s (Muhammad Shaker El Deeb ) representatives were present.

Mass registration of about 5000 citizens from different companies and neighboring governorates, especially  Al Sharqia and Al Menofeya, in the electoral rolls of Giza voters, so that they could vote for the NDP’s candidate Muhammad Abu El Einein, who also mustered the employees at his own company (Seramika Cleopatra) for the same purpose.

Supporters of major general Saad El Gammal, the NDP’s contender in Al Saff constituency, attacked reporters, who were covering the polling process there.

 Adel Hamed Farahat, Muslim Brotherhood candidate for workers in Al Sayyeda Zeinab constituency was surprised when he found out that his number on ballots  was changed from 8 to 7, which, in turn, led to voters’ confusion.  

The judge supervising the polling station no 36 at Al Rashad school (eastern Cairo) did not allow the candidates’ representatives in the station. Under the representatives’ persistence and warnings of telling the media, he acceded to their request.    
 
Voters in Al Ma’adi constituency were told not to vote for the withdrawn candidate Abd El Saeed Ibrahim, so that their votes for  the other Muslim Brotherhood’s candidate Dr. Muhammad Mansour don’t get invalid. 

 
– The supervising judge of women polling station in Al Sahel constituency (Northern Cairo) let about 150 women voters cast ballots without dipping their fingers in the indelible ink. This group of women, who voted in only 30 minutes, came in vehicles owned by the NDP’s candidate.
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More than 30 human rights organizations’ observers, who were  monitoring elections in Al Hawamdeya polling stations (south Giza), were denied monitoring permits
 

A lady having an unsealed proxy from candidate Essam Idrees was banned from entering the polling station located at Al Hawamdeya secondary school.
  

– Judges barred the candidates’ representatives from entering a poll station in Tersa (Southern Giza), claiming that the place hasn’t been fully prepared, and, consequently, refused to give voting process the go-ahead.

 In El Menya, all polling stations were peacefully opened and prepared for the polling process. No single problem was detected. 

The National Democratic Party illegally made use of “Al-Shaimaa Travel” company’s  garage — located at Shebin Al-Koum st., Ismailia — and all the vehicles therein, for transporting the citizens from Ismailia to Cairo to vote for the party’s candidates.

  Insurance companies in Ismailia were instructed  to send all their  employees to Cairo to vote for Yousuf Butrus Ghali.

Travel companies’ buses carried more than 100 employees from the “Military Factory 27” in Shubra Al Khayma heading for the polling station situated at Al-Nasr Primary School at Mansheyet Nasser in Helwan constituency to vote for the NDP.   

 At 9:00 am, Ahmad Al-Esawy Selim, the NDP’s  assistant secretary in Menofya and its candidate at Al Shuhada constituency,  gathered along with his supporters in the front of Al Shahid Reyad School at Al Shuhada constituency and attacked the representatives of Muslim Brotherhood’s candidates.