Egypt: What Happened In The Egyptian Presidential Elections 2005?

Land Center for Human Rights

Press Release

Cairo 13/9/2005 Press Release

What Happened In The Egyptian Presidential Elections 2005?

Were the Egyptian presidential elections in 7/9/2005 just a rehearsal showing democracy to satisfy America? Did the Egyptian government do it properly? Will that effect the status of human rights and the possible democracy transformation (change)? Were there any violations that doubt the impartiality of these elections? These are questions which the LCHR will try to answer in its' report about the elections. This report is issue no. 19 of the "Civil Society" series.

In the First Section: the report undertakes the general atmosphere of the presidential elections presenting the different conditions in the Egyptian society, starting with the boycott of the elections by El Tagamo'a and El Nasery and some movements that call for change and the unclear position of the Muslim Brothers toward the elections. Then the deterioration of the political conditions during the elections by continuing to implement the emergency law and some of the exceptional laws. In addition to that, there are still more than 15 thousand detainees in the Egyptian prisons sentenced to be imprisoned for periods that exceed 20 years without any judicial rulings, in addition to the deterioration of the economic and social conditions, as Egypt is still deteriorated in the field of developing human resources, as 43.9% of the people still earn less than 2 dollars a day. Despite all that, the government is still presenting statements about improving the democracy conditions, as if violating the citizens civil, economic and social rights is not related to the democratic and political development in Egypt.
Although the candidate of the National party "Mubarak" has won the elections by receiving 6.316.784 voices of the total people who have the right to vote who were 31.826.284 people. But as you see, a very limited number of them took part in the voting process, as only 23% of them participated, and the rest refused to take part in the voting process, claiming that they know the result in advance and that they don't trust the Egyptian authorities in managing free and impartial elections.
While the candidate of El Ghad party "Nour" received 540.405 voices, which was a surprise, as he received double the voices that the candidate of El Wafd party had received (208.891 voices), but El Wafd party claims that this result goes back to the short time and because the Muslim Brothers had voted for Nour in these elections.
No doubt that these competing parties knew that that would fail in advance, but they still competed to benefit in competing in the nest presidential elections in 2011.

In the Second Section: the report undertakes the legal framework of the presidential elections, presenting the most important notes about the amendment of clause no. 76 of the Egyptian constitution and the impossible texts that it contained that the political and party force couldn't bear, as the unequal chances in the elections were the cause of the withdrawal of some poliical and party forces from the competition.
It also presents some notes on the law of the presidential elections no. 174 for the year 2005, the decision of establishing the elections committees and the argument about not allowing CSOs to supervise the elections from inside the committees. On the other hand, challenges against the elections before the administrational judicial court reached 40 challenges, 4 of them were transfered to the supreme constitutional court for the unconstitutionality of clauses no. 2, 8, 11, 13, 24, 25, 43 of the presidential elections law.

In the Third Section: the report undetakes the most important notes monitored by the LCHR researcher, lawyers and volunteers in some of the rural governorates, such as:
Fayoum, Monofeya, Demyat, North Sina, Kafr El Sheikh, Port Said, El Gharbeya, Bany Swief, Daqahleya, Sohag, South Sina, Qalubeya, Giza, Isma'aleya, El Behira, El Menya, El Sharqeya, Alezandria, Qena, Asute.
The most important notes were: excluding (throwing out) the delegates and representatives of the candidates from some of the electoral committees, like what happened in El Hessa and El Deer – Tookh station and in Kafr Shokr, the representative of El Ghad party was assaulted, the representatives of the Opposition party were thrown out of the committees of El Rahmaneya, Abrag El Hama school in Itay El Baroud, El Akreesha in Kafr El Dawar – Behira and El Kuwait school in Hay El Arab – Port Said, as there were some dispute between the representatives of the Opposition party and the representatives of the National party. In Esma'aleya, there were some violations in Mohamed Farid primary school and El Imam Ali primary school in El Sheikh Zayed, as the heads of some of the committees refused the requests of the representatives of the candidates of the Opposition party to receive voting cards, and some committees from Raslan school in Fadwa – Daqahleya refused that some of the LCHR lawyers enter the committees to supervise the voting process, and in some of the committees, there were advertisements for the candidate of the National party and the supervising judge didn't object on that. In El Sharqeya, some voters were forced to vote for the candidate of the National party by threatening them with fines and taxes that they will be charged with in the future, and there were collective voting for the candidate of the National party which have effected the secrecy of voting. In Giza, the violations of the comers voting, as some of the local committees and the public business cars were used to transport these comer voters to some of the constituency (electoral districts) to vote several times, especially in Imbaba, Warrak, Kerdasa, El Omraneya and El Badrasheen committees.
Some of the representatives of El Wafd and El Ghad parties in some of the constituency followed up by the LCHR researchers and lawyers complained about the low quality of phosphoric ink which made many committees work without it, like what happened in the committees of Bandar El Fayoum, Damanhour, Itay El Barood and Kafr El Dawar – El Behira, and in Gerga – Sohag, the land registration employee refused to give the representatives of the Opposition party special proxies. In Aswan, the representative of the candidate of El Ghad party was arrested and detained for several hours, and pressure was practiced on the voters of the committee of El Kharga police station to vote for the candidate of the National party.

In the Fourth Section: the report presents some general notes around the elections, such as:
- The delay in delivering the voters lists to the Opposition representatives, while these lists were in the hands of the National party representatives.
- Prevention of CSOs from entering the headquarters of some the electoral committees by some of the supervising judges although the general committee has declared its' approval in this matter.
- Using the cars of the local councils and some of the business sector companies to transport voters to the headquarters of the committees, in addition to using microbuses owned by citizens against their will for the same reason especially in the rural areas.
- The phosphoric ink wasn't tested by the judges, they didn't even see it before the elections day, just like any voter, and some committees had to work without it.
On the other hand, most of the notes indicate that the security forces didn't interfere in the voting and sorting process, which is considered a positive matter that Egypt didn't know in the previous elections.
In the Fifth and last Section: the report presents some recommendations that if implemented, will lead to improving the condition of the possible democratic transformation in Egypt, the impartiality of the next elections (presidential, legislative or others) and improving the conditions of participation, like:
- The complete judicial supervision on all of the electoral processes (opening for nomination, advertising, voting, sorting, announcing the results by the platform judges) by doing the elections on several stages, and the necessity of implementing the judiciary rulings especially the administrational judiciary .
- The necessity of separating between the state foundations and the ruling party during the elections period to prevent using the public money in the electoral process.
- Allowing supervision on the upcoming legislative elections by issuing a decision by the President as an implementation to clause no. 147 of the constitution.
- Using modern technology in the voting and supervision processes, like networking the committees and allowing the public to see what is going on inside these committees through monitors ... etc.
- The necessity of providing the candidates the electoral lists and documents before the electoral process with enough time.
- Declaring the voting places and headquarters, the names of the voters and the committees before the electoral day with enough time to facilitate the voting process.

The LCHR demands all democratic forces to work together to guarantee the impartiality of the upcoming legislative elections or any other elections for a free and safe country where everyone lives decently.

To obtain a copy of the report, please contact the Center.
?????????????????????????????????????????
Address: 122 el Gala’a st-Ramsis Tower-Cairo
Tel/Fax: 02-5750470
E-mail: [email protected]
[email protected]
Website: www.lchr-eg.org