An Election without Voters … Monitors Trapped by Permission
As one of ECWR’s missions is to monitor the Shoura Council elections, ECWR sent observers to monitor voting during the June 1st Shoura election from a gender‐sensitive perspective. The election includes 446 candidates, including 11 female candidates throughout 9 different governorates, which include: Cairo, Al‐Minya, Kafr El‐Sheiekh, Dakhalya, Qena, Helwan, Al‐Fayoum, Al‐Qalubaia, and Al Behara. There are a total 74 seats from 55 constituencies being contested in today’s election. A set of violations have already been monitored during the voting process.
ECWR’s observers started began at 7:00 A.M. Each one has received a card granting them permission issued by the High Commission of Elections in order to monitor the election. However, they faced a problem when they were still prevented by security to do their work, as on‐site security refused to recognize the permission granted by the Commission, arrest them, and sent them to the police station. All of this wasted the time of the monitors and prevented them from witnessing any further violations. More importantly, this occurred
with all of ECWR’s observers in all governorates, which was meant to intimidate them.
Additionally, one of the observers, in Fayoum governorate was detained for more than an hour, which meant there were neither observers nor voters present. An ‘Election without Voters or Observers’ is how we can best describe the early hours of the Shoura Council election. It witnessed reluctance from both men and women to go out and vote throughout all governorates.
The violations of Election Day are as follows:
Al‐Minya Governorate:
- ECWR received a complaint from female candidate, Ms. Amira Abdel Fatah, from Al‐Minya governorate, Malawy district. She reported to ECWR that the polling stations in the district of Malawy were closed by the NDP’s candidate. Furthermore, ballot boxes were stuffed in the first hours of the election despite a low voter turnout. ECWR advised her to file a legal complaint against the High Commission of Elections.
Qena Governorate:
- In Qous district of Khazan village, ECWR’s observers noted polling stations were not opened until 10:30 A.M, including poll station # 175. The polling station is designated for womenonly and is located in Awadaad Primary School. The total number of registered women voters in the area total 1050. Meanwhile, there are 6 polling stations in Quos district, but only 3 polling stations were opened at 8:00am meanwhile the other 3 opened at 10:30am, only after one of ECWR’s observers asked about them and requested they be opened. The polling station numbers that were not opened until 10:30 are #185, #186, and #187.
- All of the polling stations in Quos district did not have any candidate representatives present, except for those belonging to the NDP, as most were prevented from attending. In polling station #171, designated for women‐only, the NDP candidate representative stole the votes of many women by voting on behalf of them. The ECWR observer reported this but nothing was done.
- ECWR also received a complaint from female candidate, Ms. Hoda Hassan, who was approached by NDP candidates when she passed polling stations. They did not recognize her as a candidate and tried to persuade her to vote for the NDP.
Fayoum Governorate:
- In Beni Atman Kadema School in Snors District, there was a large security presence at polling stations despite the low voter turnout.
- At Abu Gesno Primary School for girls in the Ebshway District, the lists of candidates’ names were missing. Thus, voters kept asking who they should vote for because there were no lists of names. In the same polling station, the NDP candidate and his supporters were “buying votes” by distributing money to voters in return for their vote.
- ECWR received a phone call from female candidate, Naeema Galal Sayed from Ahrar Party that she discovered in Snors district that her banners and campaign materials were cut down by the NDP. Furthermore, they prevented her from being interviewed by television reporters.
Dakhalya Governorate:
- At Awtif As‐Sharkawy School in Talkha district, a group of voters were collected. Each of the voters then voted around 10 times and then continued to other polling stations and voted ten more times. This group continued throughout the district’s polling stations.
- At the Advanced Commerce School in Talkha district, ECWR observers captured photos of the supporters for NDP candidates inside the polling station while they are voting on behalf of others. Meanwhile, a fight broke out between NDP party candidate supporters and they started hitting each other with ‘shoma’ (a long wooden bat).
- At Taha Hussein School in the first district, Bandar al Mansoura, one of the policemen along with another man entered the polling station and prevented voters from casting their votes until they showed their identification cards. At the same school, there are NDP candidate campaign materials on the walls of the school, which is a violation of election rules.
Helwan Governorate:
- In Al‐Saf district, the observer and the female candidate representative were prevented from entering polling stations. Also, citizens were prevented from casting their votes. The supporters of candidates not belonging to the NDP in Al‐Saf district experienced bullying and violence.
- At Minya Primary School in the first district of Helwan governorate, candidate representatives were prevented from entering polling stations and even after they presented them with an authorization form to do so they were still prohibited from entering. Only people who had voter registration cards and NDP member cards were allowed to enter the polling station. This also occurred in Shobak village in the same district. Because in Helwan governorate, candidate representatives were prevented from entering polling stations, 20 lawyers filed a police report in the Helwan police station.
Al Behara Governorate:
- ECWR observer was prevented from entering the Modern School polling station in Hosh Esa’a, the 3rd district located in Abo Al‐Matamer police station.
Cairo Governorate:
- An ECWR election observer was prevented from entering the Emam Ali Primary School in the 4th district in El Gamaleya police station, where the polling station was also opened late.
