The Presidential Election Commission is coming under fire for ruling out any local monitoring of next week's presidential polls. Gamal Essam El-Din reports The firm rejection by the Presidential Election Commission (PEC) to allow NGOs and the Judges' Club to monitor next week's presidential elections has brought it under sharp criticism for the second week running. The PEC also faces opposition charges that it is ignoring state media bias in favour of President Hosni Mubarak, the candidate of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP). Standing up to the PEC, an alliance of 34 NGOs resorted to filing lawsuits with the Administrative Court. NGOs argue that Articles 55 and 62 of the constitution allow civil society organisations, especially NGOs, a role in public life. Hafez Abu Si'ida, the alliance's spokesman, also indicated that NGOs intend to oversee the elections even if the PEC continues to refuse their request. "In that case, NGOs will have monitors standing outside polling stations," Abu Si'ida said. This monitoring, explained Mohamed Zarea, coordinator of the NGOs' coalition, includes on the ground observers outside polling stations. NGOs, Zarea added, plan to hire some 250 monitors to do the job. Until Al-Ahram Weekly went to press on Wednesday night, the National Council for Human Rights (NCHR) was unable to seek PEC approval to coordinate with NGOs. The Judges' Club will decide tomorrow whether it will boycott supervising the presidential elections. Preliminary reports show that the club -- the de facto union of Egypt's 8,000 judges -- will ask judges to observe certain rules in case they supervise the election. These include the necessity of taking full control of the ballot -- either outside or inside polling stations -- and enabling NGOs to monitor the election and the representatives of candidates to attend the vote count in both auxiliary and the main polling stations. The club, however, has strong suspicions that the PEC will appoint members belonging to the prosecution-general and the State Cases Authority as judges charged with supervising the ballot. According to the Club, members of these two authorities can never be considered judges. Judges, said Club chairman Zakaria Abdel-Aziz, are those who deliver verdicts in courts. The Club will form a committee to evaluate voting operations and register negative remarks. These, said Abdel-Aziz, will be taken into account when the matter comes to supervising parliamentary elections in November. Complaints by NGOs and the Judges Club were not enough to dissuade the PEC from monopolising the monitoring of the polls. PEC spokesman Osama Atawiya said the measures adopted by the PEC were enough to ensure the integrity and transparency of the elections. In addition, there is the examining of all voter lists and providing candidates and their representatives with photocopies of them. Atawiya said the PEC decided that the number of auxiliary polling stations be reduced from 54,000 to 9,737. This, in addition to 329 primary stations, brings the number of voting stations to 10,066. The reduction, indicated PEC Chairman Mamdouh Marei, will be made by grouping five voting boxes in one station. "As each box is designed to contain 600 votes, a judge will be entitled in this way to supervise 3000 votes in one auxiliary station," Marie said, adding that auxiliary polling stations will be available everywhere, even in summer resorts, to enable vacationers to vote. Marei explained that while judges will be in complete control of voting inside polling stations, the PEC will appoint senior judges in all governorates to observe neighbourhoods surrounding the stations. "These senior judges," said Marei, "will be in charge of receiving complaints and making sure that voters have easy access to stations." Senior judges will also make sure that representatives of candidates attend voting and vote counting operations. Marei indicated that on 6 September, a day before election day, judges will go to first-instance courts to receive ballot cards. "On voting day," said Marei, "judges must start by examining the ballot boxes and making sure that they are empty and that the number of ballot cards is enough." After the end of voting, Marei said, judges must supervise the count of votes. Each judge, said Marei, will prepare a written statement showing figures concerning how many voters the station included, how many voted and the number of valid and invalid votes. This statement, said Marei, must be made in the presence of representatives of candidates and be signed by the judge and station employees. Judges, added Marei, will also make sure that there is no buying of votes. Those who are found guilty of giving bribes for votes could face six months in jail and a fine ranging from LE1,000 to LE5,000. At the end, Marei said, the voting statement must be taken personally by the judge to the primary polling station. In primary stations, Marei said, all statements detailing voting in auxiliary stations will be collected and reported to the PEC in Cairo. Marei said the final result of the presidential election could take up to three days. The PEC's measures, however, were the object of opposition criticism. Rifaat El-Said, chairman of Al-Tagammu Party, told Al-Ahram Weekly that his party objected to the presidential law because it gave the PEC draconian powers. "Al-Tagammu warned that PEC membership and the powers afforded it will inevitably make it side with the NDP," said El-Said who expects that the same scenario will be repeated in parliamentary elections in the fall. The PEC claims that none of the candidates have issued any official complaint regarding violations of campaigning rules. This is in spite of the fact that human rights organisations have railed against the state media for breaking campaign rules and backing the NDP candidate President Hosni Mubarak. A poll conducted by the Al-Jazeera TV station showed that 93 per cent of Egyptians interviewed said local media was biased towards Mubarak. The PEC said that starting from Tuesday, and in accordance with the presidential law, public opinion polls will be banned. Al-Wafd and Al-Ghad parties complained that Egyptian TV had refused to air their campaign advertisements on the grounds that they breach campaign rules.
