In a speech a day ahead of this week's presidential polls interim President Adli Mansour vowed that state authorities, including the presidency, would “keep an equal distance from both candidates and had never and would never direct citizens toward a certain candidate”. Mansour's words were put to the test on Monday and Tuesday when Egyptians headed to the polls. Thousands of judges were supervising polling stations and large numbers of local and foreign monitors were deployed to observe the process. According to the Presidential Election Commission (PEC) 16,000 judges took charge of 13,899 auxiliary polling stations and 352 vote-counting centres. “These judges were in charge of implementing measures to ensure a fair and transparent vote,” said PEC spokesman Abdel-Aziz Salman. PEC extended polling to a third day because it found a significant numbers of citizens had been prevented from voting because polling stations were overcrowded or because they faced some form of intimidation. Before the extension of the vote, Salman announced on Monday that the vote would be extended until 10pm on Tuesday to give citizens who complained of daytime temperatures an opportunity to cast their ballots. Eighty-two local civil society and six international organisations observed the polls, said Salman. They include the US-based Carter Center and Democracy International, Transparency International, South Africa Sustainability, the Global Network for Rights and Development, and the Arab World Election. Five international diplomatic organisations also joined the supervision. They include the Arab League, the African Union, the Community of the Sahel and Saharan States (Comessa), the European Union, and the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF). Loay Deeb, President of the Global Network for Rights and Development (GNRD), told Al-Ahram Weekly that GNRD was among several groups supervising polls in Egypt for the first time. “Our observers cover around 50 per cent of polling stations,” said Deeb. “All in all I think that foreign monitors will cover almost 90 per cent of the vote. This will help guarantee that Egypt's presidential polls are marked with integrity and no longer plagued with the irregularities which Egyptians say were the hallmark of ballots under the regime of Hosni Mubarak.” Salman said 800 international monitors had observed the voting process. Presidential candidates Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi and Hamdeen Sabahi both said the judicial supervision of the polls was tough. Several local monitoring organisations have noted that the strict supervision of the polls may have prevented many voters from casting their ballots. Haifaa Abu Ghazala, Arab League Assistant Secretary-General for Media Affairs and Chairman of the organisation's observers, said the League's mission covered 22 governorates. The Arab League is expected to provide a general assessment of the integrity of the polls. The One World Foundation, a local group observing the polls, said it had identified “routine violations inside and outside several polling stations”. “These violations mark almost all Egyptian polls but this time round they are insufficiently extensive for us to brand the ballot as flawed,” the group said in a statement. The violations it recorded included delays in the opening of polling stations, the absence of judges, lack of voter lists and the barring of access to polling stations for licensed observers and media personnel. The One World Organisation also reported that the Muslim Brotherhood — designated a terrorist organisation by the government in December — had tried to prevent voters from participating in the polls in the Kerdassa district by blocking roads. Judges supervising polling stations say they have been forced to invalidate ballots on which voters had written “I love you” next to the candidate they favoured. Salman also judges had had to intervene to prevent campaigning outside polling stations. The campaign of Hamdeen Sabahi has complained that team members were detained by police and army forces at a number of polling stations and others were barred by judges from entering. Campaigning for Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi was allowed inside and outside some polling stations, they allege. Governorates where pro-Sisi campaigning has been reported include Cairo, Giza, Minya, Ismailiya and Qalioubiya. Sabahi's campaign also reported attempts by Muslim Brotherhood supporters to intimidate voters in several governorates. “If any campaigning took place it was by individuals,” said Al-Sisi's campaign. The former defence minister's campaign team revealed that it had filed a complaint against a judge in North Cairo's Al-Sahel who it claims had directed citizens to vote for Sabahi, and against judges in the Menoufiya governorate district of Berket Al-Sabie for directing citizens to vote for Sabahi or preventing them from casting votes for no reason. Al-Sisi's campaign has also complained that some judges implemented the rules in a “bureaucratic way”. “They insisted voters display a national number identity card valid on the ballot day,” said the campaign. Voters whose home addresses are outside Cairo have complained they were prevented from voting in the capital. One man from Assuit told CBC television that despite regis tering his name with the PEC beforehand as stipulated he was not allowed by a judge in Maadi to cast his vote. “I tried to explain to him that I had registered my name as a migrant in order to be allowed to vote in Cairo but he refused, arguing that he had not received any instructions,” said the man. The number of migrants allowed to cast their votes in Cairo and other cities during last January's referendum reached half a million. Ahmed Al-Zind, chairman of the independent Judges Club, defended judges' actions, arguing that they cannot be blamed for applying the rules. Salman said that at the end of the first day of the elections ballot boxes were secured by the army and police forces. “Judges took responsibility for sealing the ballot boxes with red ink and registered the number of voters who participated in the first day to prevent any kind of manipulation,” said Salman. “When they come on the second day there first task is to ensure the numbers tally.” At the end of the second day judges took charge of the vote-counting process. “Judges in auxiliary polling stations were completely responsible for supervising the count and reporting the final to the main vote-counting centre,” said Salman. “The 352 vote-counting centres then report final figures to the PEC which is expected to announce the result by 5 June.” Salman indicated that local and foreign monitors and media people and representatives of the two candidates were allowed to attend the count in both auxiliary and main polling stations only with the approval of judges. “Judges were authorised not to allow any monitor or media person in if they found he or she violated the rules,” said Salman.
