Surveying the scene at hundreds of poll stations in the capital and across the country, Al-Ahram Weekly sought out voters' dreams and concerns Wednesday 7 September 2005 will go down in history as the day Egyptians went out to choose their president for the first time. Voting began at 8am and continued until 10pm at some 10,000 poll stations across the country. Turnout was varied, depending on where you went. While the contest may have been between 10 candidates -- including the incumbent Hosni Mubarak, who was widely assumed to be the winner even before voting began -- it was also about a new political process that remains fraught with unresolved issues. Certainty about the results, uncertainty about the process -- that seemed to be the hallmark of this first-ever multi-candidate poll. There was also confusion about who could and could not vote. Many of the issues that had been vividly discussed in the press and in the lead-up to the vote -- whether or not judges would be monitoring poll stations, the presence or lack thereof of NGOs, and other things -- often seemed far away from voters' concerns. Instead, they spoke of why they were supporting a particular candidate, and what they hoped their vote would mean. CAIRO AND GIZA: At 11:30am, at the polling station set up in Imbaba's Al-Zohour Elementary School, around 100 people were looking for their names on the voting lists stuck on the wall. 4000 voters were registered on these lists. Al-Azhar student Eid Gomaa, exiting the school, seemed satisfied at what he'd seen. "Everything was okay. There was no intervention. It only took me 15 minutes to cast my vote," he said. "I don't believe there will be rigging." Gomaa was trying his best to remove the indelible ink that had been placed on his fingers by the judge in charge of the poll station to make sure he would not be able to go vote again somewhere else. At another of the district's poll stations, things were a little more chaotic. Pro-Mubarak slogans were blaring out of loud speakers affixed to cars by campaigners. Inside, a throng of people surrounded an employee who was looking for their names on the voting lists. "How is it that I voted in this polling station in all the previous elections using my voting card, and yet today, I can't find my name on the list?" wondered an angry old man. Despite a heart condition, he was keen to cast his vote, but wanted to know, "why the government was urging us to come and vote, when they end up placing obstacles in our path? I'm not going to vote in any subsequent elections, as long as this kind of disorganisation reigns supreme. By not making things easier, they are forcing us not to take part, and remain apathetic." In different parts of the capital, similar scenarios emerged, with stations in the same districts featuring radically different levels of organisational acumen. In the working class neighbourhood of Boulaq Abul-Ela, voters found out the hard way that claims that you could vote with just your personal ID card were a myth. At most poll stations, officials insisted on voters having their pink voting cards in hand. Even then, the scene often verged on the chaotic. At the Al-Salam school, the station was packed with women standing in long rows waiting for their names to be called, even after they had handed their voting cards to a police officer in charge of the operation. Many voters were forced to venture from one poll station to another until they found one that would allow them to vote. At Heliopolis' Al-Nozha Police Station, for instance, there was a great deal of confusion regarding where voters needed to go. "If my name begins with 'meem' [the letter M], where do I go?" a man was asking an official. To which the brief response was, "Well, either Nabil Al-Waqqad [school], or the Salaheddin Police Station." There were no signs explaining the procedures that needed to be followed, and in the end, the man was left guessing which of the two places he should go to. At the Salaheddin Police Station, a few neat, computer-typed pages with names all beginning with the letter "alif" (A) were hanging out to dry in the sun. By 1:30 in the afternoon, they looked untouched. A young man named Ahmed Hassan discovered that there were two Ahmed Hassans on the list. He seemed to be the first person to have come in to vote. Inside, four employees were asleep at their desks. There was no such napping to be had at a poll station in the southern Cairo district of Helwan. A local businessman had parked three small trucks out in front. One featured a large banner with a picture of Mubarak. The other two were filled with young men wearing white t- shirts that had, "Yes to Mubarak" printed on them. Suddenly, all three of the trucks began blaring a song about how this particular businessman was voting for Mubarak, and how "all the kind people of Egypt should vote for Mubarak, because he is the only one who loves them, and looks after their interests. God is with you Mubarak, and so are the people." The young men got out of the truck, and began singing the song while dancing in front of the poll stations, and waving Egyptian flags. Voters in Helwan, for the most part, seemed to be between their mid 30s and late 50s, with very few younger people in sight. Some people approached by the Weekly revealed that they had only cast their votes because their "directors at work promised to give them the day off, or a bonus, if they did so". One man said that he had merely wiped his finger on the towel being used to clean off the indelible ink, so that it would look like he had voted. "That way," he said, "I can take my vacation without going through this whole mess." In nearby Maadi, most poll stations were empty. At one, a local MP arrived, accompanied by 10 young men, who started to chant that, "we are the only lucky people, because we have Mubarak as our leader." A few minutes later, as TV cameras showed up, the MP, surrounded by the 10 men, began to wax poetic about his "intense pleasure at the high turnout for the first presidential elections, which has demonstrated people's belief in the elections' transparency". That wasn't quite the sentiment in Cairo's working-class Bab Al-Shaariya district, where Ghad Party chairman Ayman Nour, one of the most high profile of the 10 candidates, is also an MP. While turnout seemed moderate in Bab Al-Shaariya, those who did come to vote had strong opinions to express, either for or against their local representative and what his bid for the presidency meant to them. House painter Ali El-Adel said he was voting for Nour even though he knew Mubarak would win, mainly because he "hoped Nour would at least come in second place, and thus ensure himself a political future". Although store owner Hussein Youssef refused to reveal whom he had voted for, he credited Nour for "forcing the government to switch from a referendum to a real vote. The amendment of Article 76 was amazing. This time, if Mubarak doesn't fulfill his promises, the public can hold him accountable." 76-year-old Ali Abdel-Wahed, who works as a treasurer for an NGO, was also excited about what he called the "beginning of a new era". His support for Mubarak could be summed up as a combination of two things: giving the president the chance to "build on what we have already achieved"; and the lack of a viable alternative, despite all the other choices. "The parties are not active at the moment," Abdel-Wahed said. "They need to be dynamic in the next six years, and try to reach out to the public. Do they expect people to support them while they are sitting in their offices?" A Ghad Party representative named Mahmoud Shawqi at a poll station in Dokki, meanwhile, complained about not being allowed to properly witness the voting process. "They only let me have a look inside the poll station, and then policemen made me leave," he said. At Dokki's Abdel-Moneim Riyad School, only 100 of the 4000 registered voters had come to cast their votes by 2pm. A judge refused to allow the Weekly a quick glance into the poll station, despite the fact that the information minister had said that media would be allowed unhampered access. Downtown, outside a polling station on Qasr Al-Nil Street, a group of Wafd Party supporters were chanting slogans in support of their candidate, Noaman Gomaa, actively encouraging incoming voters to choose him. "The Wafd holds the hope for real change in Egypt," said teacher Khalid Ali, a party member. "If we seek change, it can only be via the Wafd." ALEXANDRIA: In the Mediterranean coastal city's Bab Sharq district, pro- Mubarak groups had gathered in front of the main polling station. Many of them were dock workers, who had been brought here by a top NDP official. They were chanting, "All of Alexandria is lobbying for the president," a statement that provoked a bystander into telling the Weekly that, "Alexandria's population is eight million, so there is bound to be someone here who is against Mubarak. I myself will go down and cross out all the candidates; they are all unfit to rule." Many of the working-class women at another polling station seemed to confirm that Mubarak did have a great many supporters. Some of the younger girls referred to the president as "father Mubarak". An older woman on crutches, her eyes wet with tears, said she was ecstatic that the president had come to the city and asked for their support. "Now we are voting for him in return." Not one of them dared to link their humble social status to Mubarak or his policies. According to Raisa, "no one is better than Mubarak. He gave us everything." Someone else said, "it's enough that he fulfills his promises." If any of the women had a demand for the president, it was that he does something to "lower the prices of vegetables". At the Al-Ibrahimiya School polling station in another part of town, Ahmed Gabr, who was monitoring the vote for the Independent Egyptian Committee, said a lot of people were having trouble finding their names on the electoral lists. People who had recently come back from working abroad, he said, were also having a hard time. "They go to the police station, obtain a 'signature' indicating that they can vote, only to be rejected at the polling stations." Gabr said he also had a problem with judges only being present at the city's main, and not auxiliary, stations. AL-MINYA: Voters in Al-Minya, 250 kms south of Cairo, turned out in greater numbers than heads of polling stations had expected; many voters, however, complained that the process was far less organised than it had been made to seem by the state-run media. "I could not find my name on the voters' list," said Maher Gaber, Al-Minya University vice- president, who was standing outside the city's largest secondary school in the Ard Sultan neighbourhood. Gaber said his name had disappeared even though "I voted in this same location during the May referendum on amending Article 76 of the constitution." Azmi Abdel-Moneim, who was heading the Damares village polling station, two kilometres north of Al-Minya, said the unexpectedly high turnout had resulted in a great deal of disorganisation. Outside the station, where by 2pm 600 of the 4,000 registered on the voter's lists had already showed up, dozens of people crowded at the entrance trying to find a way in. Nageh Ahmed, a 31-year-old farmer, and other voters in the throng seemed determined to vote. "I will vote for Mubarak, and that's all I know," he said. Youssef Thabet, a 51-year-old civil servant, said he would vote for the candidate from the party that had helped him obtain his voting card. He mistakenly called the ruling National Democratic Party by its old name -- Al-Ittihad El-Eshteraki, the "Socialist Union" Voters at several poll stations said NDP representatives or MPs had bussed them in. According to Mo'men Abdel-Wahab, a lawyer who was monitoring the process, "NDP leaders and representatives in Al-Minya bussed people in, and helped them find their names on the lists." An NDP organiser, who insisted on anonymity, admitted as much, saying turnout was high because we bussed in a lot of "civil servants to vote". At a polling station in downtown Al-Minya, Gamal Bayoumi, a Ghad Party representative, said he had not been given "the new lists of registered voters," as stipulated by the law. The lack of such lists had resulted in confusion for party representatives and voters alike, he said. At least one of the foreigners seen observing the vote outside one of the Al-Minya polling stations said he was from the US Embassy in Cairo, but refused to elaborate further on his identity or what he was doing there. PORT SAID: The coastal city entrance point to the Suez Canal was a focal point of Wafd and Ghad party campaigning in the lead up to the vote. On election day, however, Port Said seemed to have been taken over by the NDP. The city's otherwise quiet streets were jam-packed with colorful banners in support of Mubarak. According to Port Said Wafd Party secretariat member Ahmed Hassouna, there used to be a lot more signs supporting Noaman Gomaa, but these were "removed at night". Both Gomaa and Nour had made the city's former free zone status a focal point of their campaigns. The People's Assembly annulled that status in 2002, much to the chagrin of the local textile industry. Although Nour and Gomaa's promises to bring back the duty free zone if elected made a mark in some voter's minds, Fatema Mosaad, for one, said she would "still be voting for Mubarak, even though he was the one who had revoked the duty free zone". Salwa Mohamed, voting in one of the city's women-only poll stations, said that because Nour had promised to "make Port Said a duty-free area again," she would be voting for him. At Port Said's nine main polling stations and 85 auxiliary ones, there was the same mix of organised and disorganised voting procedures found everywhere else across the country. "Even though I have a voting card, I have not been able to find my name in three different polling stations," said one man as he stormed out of the polling station. "That's it, I am not going to vote," he said in frustration. Many of the voters seemed to be from the city's older generations. "I have voted for Gamal Abdel-Nasser, Anwar El-Sadat and Mubarak," said 80-year old Hanem Mostafa. "And I will vote for him again." Galal Mersal, 77, was also going to vote for the president. "He is the only credible option," despite the multitude of candidates this time. "He knows the country by heart and served it well." The NDP had clearly managed to mobilise a great many young people, who were busy helping people navigate the ballot process. 18-year-old Iman Naim, one of the eight NDP representatives standing at the entrance to a poll station, said she and her colleagues "were guiding voters through the procedures, and helping them find their names on the lists." According to Ahmed Mohamed, the head of one of the poll stations in the city's vibrant Al-Arab district, "NDP observers were also present inside most of the poll stations, while the other parties' observers were nearly nowhere to be found." The general secretary of the Ghad Party's Port Said branch, Walid El-Fahla, said that disparity was not surprising. "The NDP has been in power for the last three decades, so it is very much expected that their people would be spread out over all the poll stations." El-Fahla said the Ghad Party had 400 people watching over the elections in Port Said. "In any case, we are optimistic, since the judiciary is supervising the process." Wafd Party representatives were also trying to do their part by helping their members find their names on the voters' lists. Gomaa supporter Mostafa Ahmed, 53, said it took a long time to find his name, but when he finally did, he was ecstatic. "Today, my vote will finally count." Reported by Amirah Ibrahim, Mohamed El-Assyouti, Dena Rashed, Mustafa El-Menshawi, Mohamed El-Sayed, Yasmine Fathi, Magda El-Ghitany, Sara Abu Bakr, and Amira El- Naqeeb
