With their access to media curtailed, and their plans to boycott the referendum derailed, human rights activists wonder what comes next. Mustafa El-Menshawy reports Egyptian non-governmental organisations seem unanimous in calling the referendum on amending Article 76 of the constitution a "misleading, cosmetic" change. Aida Seif El-Dawla, who heads Al-Nadim Centre for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence, said it was "pure nonsense -- a farce -- for the government to think it could keep the current situation, as it is, under its control." Wednesday's heavy turnout was not surprising, Seif El-Dawla said, considering government efforts to ensure that most, if not all, of its employees showed up at the polling stations. It was not uncommon to see buses belonging to public factories, for instance, taking loads of employees to nearby polling stations. Public sector officials said using company or factory vehicles to transport employees to the polls was a bid to "facilitate and encourage" workers to participate. For human rights activists, that also meant employees were forced to vote the way their bosses wanted them to. "We only help them reach the polling station," countered one official, "then they are on their own, in a separate room, free to cast their ballots whichever way they please." Major opposition parties have urged the public to boycott the referendum -- with headlines like "Stay at home" blazing on the front pages of their mouthpieces. But Bahieddin Hassan, the head of the Cairo Centre for Human Rights (CCHR), wanted people to "boycott the referendum in a positive way, such as taking to the streets and joining rallies to send their voices of opposition to the government." A last-ditch attempt by opposition parties to stop the referendum did not succeed. Lawsuits filed at the Administrative Court arguing that the referendum should have dealt with each item in the amendment, rather than the draft as a whole, were rejected for not being within the court's jurisdiction. Other lawsuits filed by a group of independent lawyers were also dismissed; one was against the interior minister allowing people from outside the judicial system to head some of the referendum-supervising committees. While the option to appeal these rulings at the Supreme Administrative Court exists, it was unclear as the paper went to press whether that step would be taken. NGO leaders called the referendum itself misleading, and said the ballots should have also included a third option beside the usual "yes or no". Ahmed Seif El-Islam, of the Hisham Mubarak Law Centre said, "suppose I want to say 'yes' to just half of the article -- there's no way I could express my point of view on this kind of simple yes or no referendum." The quarrels over the referendum were just the tip of the iceberg for much of the NGO community. While human rights activists have long accused the government of not making a genuine effort to reform, recent incidents, they said, have also revealed growing restrictions on human rights and press freedom. One oft-cited example was the barring of Arab and foreign satellite channels from covering a conference called "Towards a New Constitution in Egypt" that took place on Monday, and was attended by a plethora of Egyptian and Arab NGO figures. As the participants discussed a new draft constitution, they were informed that crews from the Al-Jazeera and Al- Hurra satellite channels were prevented from entering the hotel where the meeting was being held. The news cast a shadow on the discussions. Negad El-Borai, head of the Democracy Enhancement Group, was puzzled by the "ridiculous paradox" of holding a meeting to draft a new constitution, but not being allowed to invite the media to cover it. The conference was organised by CCHR in coordination with international organisations like the EU Commission and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency. CCHR's Hassan said he was told the crew was denied access on orders from State Security, "which often acts the same way with other human rights events". According to security sources, the crew was denied access "for failing to show necessary permits, which is the rule when covering events". Much the same thing occurred on Friday 13 May, when eight Al-Jazeera employees were detained for a few hours and then released, after attempting to broadcast a Cairo Judges' Club general assembly meeting calling for a boycott of the upcoming presidential elections. The permit issue was brought up there as well, even though it is not usually enforced so rigidly with other events.
