The Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights
Referendum Day: March, 26, 2007
Initial Report
Entering on the Condition of Voting YES
Applying the Constitution’s Amendments Before the Referendum
Women and NGOs as the Main Tools
Three of ECWR’s poll monitors for today’s referendum on amendments to 34 articles of the Egyptian constitution, reported that voters were allowed to enter only on the condition that they vote YES to the amendments.
Although many polling places were quiet since the polls opened, ECWR monitors in the governorates of Cairo, Qalyoubya and Giza reported that voters were only allowed to enter the polling places of referendum conditionally upon voting YES.
In El-Sanya School for girls in El Sayida Zeynab (District 12) there were youth in front from the NDP checking if people entering the polling places were voting yes and mobilizing women to vote in more than one polling place (for people who live outside of their district), without identity cards or using the ink.
Also in front of some polling places such as:
– El Khdawy secondary school (District 62), Khalil Agha Secondary School for Boys (District 6), Bab El Sharya and El Naser Primary School (District 46)
– El Qalyoubia governorate (Banha) no ink was used and no judges were supervising on the ballot boxes
The NGOs used for their beneficiaries and resources in violation of the NGO Law No 84 of 2002:
– Abo El Enen Charity: gathered women in buses in front of El Sadya Secondary School for Boys where there were representatives wearing armbands with the name of Abou El Enan chanting “YES.” Also, in front of El Zerra’a Collage they gathered students in governmental Minibuses in Giza District 1104, and had banners entitled “No to damaging Egypt’s reputation …. Together towards better development”
– The Merciful Hand Association: gathered women in buses no 2744 and 3348 to vote Yes for the amendments
– Representatives of the NDP gathered people in front of Naser Institutional Hospital that worked in each department in the hospital. They took them in buses to Qalubeya (No. 24273) with posters for the NDP.
What are people’s estimates of turnout? It seemed like an absolutely normal day in Cairo with almost no voting activity and the one lagna I peeked into was almost completely empty, with just one elderly voter walking in.
Pretty low I think. People were telling in one polling station 45% of people on the list for that constituency had voted, others 20%. I’d go with the latter number. Also a bunch of people came early in the morning — the muadhafeen vote.
So, it’s nearly nightfall over there (or maybe it already is). When do the results come out?
[…] UPDATE: More reports on fraud… […]
From what I’ve heard, I can hardly imagine a voter-turnout above 5%.
According to http://www.afrol.com/articles/24842“ rel=”nofollow”>this article, the Committee for Democracy Support is estimating turnout at 3 percent. Maybe it’s more in the provinces. I doubt it matters much, though, given that both the turnout numbers and the result will probably be cooked.
I can’t begin to tell you how much this sucks. I remember all the stories in 2003-05 about the judiciary and civil society standing up and starting to get results, and I can’t stand that the dream is going to be deferred this much longer. It’s pretty trite to say from all the way over here, but keep up the fight.
I’m sure everyone’s seen the news reports by now, but the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights was estimating 5% turnout, while the Muslims Brothers gave surprisingly exact estimate of 15% in the countryside, 5-7 percent in the cities for an overall turnout of not more than 9%.
The government, meanwhile, said preliminary figures suggest a turnout of 23-27 percent, or exactly what they predicted it would be before the referendum. They said around 24-25 percent of voters turned out in cities like Cairo and Alex and a mindboggling 60% turned out in Ismailiya and north Sinai. Yeah, right, north Sinai, where half the male population has been incarcerated over the last three years. I bet they had incentive to enshrine emergency powers in the constitution.
The information minister said the boycott had failed, how he figured that is beyond me, though he might not be wrong. How much do people identify with the calls of the opposition? I would suggest that political alienation and apathy were responsible for so few people voting. Without exception, anyone I asked — outside a polling station — wasn’t planning on voting.
Political alienation and apathy because people realised their votes weren’t going to matter, and the fact that there was so little information on the amendments out there, which probably suited the regime just fine. Lots of news reports are quoting people, particularly illiterate women, saying that they didn’t know what they were voting for, and were shepherded to polling stations and figured they were just voting yes for Mubarak. Which makes this quote from Fiqqi in the NYT even more slimy: “Information Minister Anas el-Fiqqi said the turnout was as high as 27 percent, in part because of increased participation of women. “What we are witnessing in Egypt and what we are living in Egypt now is real democratic participation,â€� Mr. Fiqqi said.”
Did Kefaya or any of the opposition groups do any awareness raising about the amendments at the neighbourhood level (even when the amendments were in draft form, not yet passed by Parliament) or did they simply not have enough time?
Reports are also quoting EOHR and a rep from Shayfeencom, looks like there was at least some voluntary monitoring, though no judges sighted.
The judges were at some polling stations, I met a couple, but they were just at the main ones, and not at the branch stations where most people vote. The judges also say there were in some cases prevented from touring the branch stations.
CAIRO, March 27, 2007 (AFP) – Judges in Egypt on Tuesday rejected the results of a referendum on constitutional changes which they argued was fraudulent, and vowed to boycott the supervision of future polls.
“The judges wash their hands of the referendum results,” Ahmed Sabr, a spokesman for the Judges’ Club, told AFP about Monday’s ballot. “We will no longer be a fig leaf to cover something shameful.”