But who cares? Karim El-Khashab finds apathy the most common response to Monday's Shura Council elections Shura Council elections, in which 77 seats were up for grabs, are the first to be held following the recent constitutional overhaul. Not that the results were ever in doubt: with most major opposition parties boycotting the poll and a massive clampdown on the Muslim Brotherhood both before and during the vote, the results are a foregone conclusion. Official NDP candidate or independent NDP candidate? In most constituencies that was the only question to be answered, except, of course, in those constituencies where two official NDP candidates were running against each other. In Cairo, most polling stations remained all but empty. The only ripple the elections appeared to cause in the capital was in Giza, where hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood supporters gathered to protest against the closure of a polling station hours before the specified time. Most eligible voters in the city, though, would not have noticed the early closing tactics, with some independent observers estimating the turnout in urban areas to be as low as one per cent. The lack of public enthusiasm did not, however, prevent the usual problems. Amer Abdel-Fattah, who campaigned for an independent candidate in Abdine, lamented that in the absence of full judicial supervision -- cancelled in the recent constitutional amendments -- elections had reverted to the usual marketplace. A seasoned campaigner, he says that in the absence of judges, in charge of polling station many are easily bought. Indeed vote buying, says Abdel-Fattah, is once again the norm. "They kicked us out of the polling station even though, as representatives of our candidates, we had every right to be there. No one has an idea of what went on inside." In Qasr Al-Nil and Sayeda Zeinab, the elections stirred a little more interest than elsewhere in Cairo, but not much. "Candidates run in huge constituencies," explained Amina Hussein, "so they cannot depend on a local following." Ordinary voters, she added, just don't feel the candidates can provide them with any useful services and so they don't bother to vote. During the elections the National Council for Human Rights (NCHR) set up an operations room to monitor irregularities occurring at polling stations across the country. Many of the complaints they received were allegations of vote buying, particularly in the governorate of Sohag. There were also complaints about reporters being banned from polling stations despite having permits to enter. In Fayoum, the NCHR was forced to intervene when journalists were arrested after taking pictures of security forces at one polling booth. They were later released. The council also received complaints from civil society observers that some polling stations remained open after the scheduled times while others, especially in Minya and Samalout where Muslim Brotherhood candidates were running, had been effectively cordoned off by security forces. Mokhlis Qotb, a member of the NCHR, shrugged off suggestions that the absence of judges had led to an increase in violations. "The complaints registered this time are similar to those received when judges were supervising polling stations, and it is premature to pass judgement on the new system." As for observers being banned from polling stations, and confusion over voter registration, these were teething problems, suggested Qotb, that could well be ironed out in future polls. Commenting on the security clampdown on the Muslim Brotherhood Qotb insisted that the council "operates within a human rights framework and will help anyone who calls for assistance, as long as they themselves respect the law". Samir Fadel, from the Ibn Khaldun Centre for Social Studies, a member of the Independent Committee for Democracy which groups 15 Egyptian NGOs and has 1500 observers around the country, was far less sanguine than Qotb. Voter turnout, he said, which appeared to be around one per cent in cities and between six and 10 per cent in rural areas, was far below any previously acknowledged figure. "Changes to Article 88 of the constitution and the removal of judges from their supervisory role have turned the public away from voting," he told Al-Ahram Weekly. "The public lost faith in the electoral system after the referendum, and now leaves voting to those with a material stake in the outcome." The coalition of NGOs also noted a sharp decrease in the number of women voters, many of whom cite fear of violence as a reason for staying away from the poll. In Sharqiya, where two rival NDP candidates were standing, clashes between their supporters resulted in one death and three people being injured. Fadel expects that the greatest number of violations will be found to have taken place in constituencies where Brotherhood candidates were standing, and where polling stations were closed down by the security forces. Overall, says Fadel, the Shura Council vote represented a major setback in democratic practice. The sharpest criticism, however, came from Essam El-Erian, a leading member of the banned Muslim Brotherhood. He claimed that once again "the Interior Ministry was in charge of the process". But whatever the excitement provoked among observers and activists, the public remains apathetic. Walking past a deserted polling station in Heliopolis the reactions of Ghada, a 22-year-old student, were typical. "I don't know of the candidates or what they stand for," she said. "I don't even understand what the Shura Council does."
