The refusal to allow local NGOs to monitor the elections was a mistake, writes Ibrahim Nafie The Presidential Elections Commission, under powers conferred by Article 76, has defied two Administrative Court rulings, the first overturning the commission's ban on the monitoring of Wednesday's election by independent groups and the second invalidating the candidacy of the Arab Socialist Egypt Party presidential contestant Wahid El-Oqssori. The National Electoral Monitoring Campaign, in turn, filed for an injunction to enforce the court's ruling to allow local NGOs to monitor the polls. These developments, which occurred 24 hours before the campaigns closed, have drawn attention away from the many positive aspects of the elections on which we will be able to draw in the future. The major protagonist in the battle is a group of Egyptian NGOs that opposed to outside monitoring of the poll volunteered to undertake the task and wrote to Hosni Mubarak urging him to approve such a course. It is a course I fully support. These Egyptian organisations are dedicated to advancing our democratic experience and I cannot see how refusing them the permission to monitor the polls can be justified either at home or abroad. If foreign monitors are to be ruled out, whether because we reject any form of foreign intervention or remain suspicious that political considerations will taint their presumed impartiality, there can be no disputing the need for our own monitors. Local NGOs are best qualified for this task. They can provide much needed independent testimony to the fairness and integrity of the polls, testimony that could act as a foil against domestic and foreign attempts to question our electoral process. Allowing local NGOs to monitor the polls would have contributed to enhancing democratisation by stimulating the more active participation of civil society in the political process. I believe that such considerations override any arguments against the NGOs' monitoring of the polls, arguments that make me wonder whether some officials have failed to fathom the nature of the momentous change that is taking place today in Egypt as the result of the president's decision to amend constitutional Article 76. Our first multi-candidate presidential elections offered Egyptians an invaluable experience. In the relatively short time that the new system has been in operation, 10 individuals stepped forward to announce their candidacy. Each of these embarked on a campaign trail to win the support of Egyptian voters. The frontrunner, NDP candidate President Mubarak, held dozens of rallies in which he presented a detailed analysis of the challenges and problems we face and a range of specific programmes for overcoming them. The other candidates did likewise, enabling the Egyptian public to hear competing proposals for solving our nation's domestic and foreign policy problems. This experience drives home a vital point, which is that democracy acquires momentum through practice. How much more regrettable it is, then, that this experience should be marred by the determination of certain officials to cling to what they claim are their rights under the amended Article 76. True, it might be argued that the judges and the party representatives who will be allowed into the polling stations will provide sufficient monitoring and that the NGOs will still be able to monitor what takes place outside the polling stations. Regardless of such legal and administrative justifications electoral commission members must realise that adhering to their stance may precipitate problems and tensions at a time when we had pinned our hopes on an electoral process that wins regional and international plaudits. By allowing the representatives of Egyptian NGOs inside polling stations we would have added to our democratic gains by establishing important conventions that can be built upon in the future. Egypt is in the midst of a transition towards a truly democratic system of government that can stand as a model for other Third World countries undergoing a similar process of democratisation. The going will not be easy. The way will be riddled with obstacles, not least among them the resistance on the part of some who are not yet accustomed to abiding by democratic rules and procedures. What is certain, however, is that the process of reform will continue according to an Egyptian vision unswayed by outside pressures. Yesterday Egypt held its first ever presidential elections in which the people could choose between a broad array of candidates. Many challenges still lay ahead and we will all have to work together to overcome them.
