With the countdown underway, Gamal Essam El-Din reviews the detail of voting procedure in Egypt's imminent and first multi-candidate presidential elections Ahead of Egypt's first multi-candidate presidential elections scheduled for 7 September, almost all procedural matters attendant of voting have been settled. The Presidential Election Commission (PEC) in charge of laying out these procedures said on Saturday that it did its best to ensure that voting goes smoothly and is transparent. According to PEC spokesman Osama Atawiya, voting will take place in 10,066 polling stations (9,737 of which are auxiliary and 329 primary) under full judicial supervision. Voting hours, Atawiya added, will last from 8am to 8pm. Citizens who vote in stations in which their names are registered, said Atawiya, will not need to show their voting cards. "They will be just required to show identity papers, such as a driving license or passport," said Atawiya. Those who opt -- or are obliged -- to vote at stations in which their names are not registered will be requested to show both voting and identity cards. They will also "have to sign their names in a special book," Atawiya said. Their number will include judges who are in charge of monitoring the voting process. In all cases, Atawiya emphasised, voters will have to dip their fingers in a phosphoric ink to ensure that they cannot vote twice. Demonstrating the procedure before journalists last week, Atawiya tested the ink himself to make sure that it cannot be erased easily within 24 hours. According to Atawiya, these procedures were laid out to both facilitate voting and ensure transparency and integrity. Voting, however, is not just a matter of having an identity or election card. Recent studies and statistics show that turnout in Egyptian general elections is declining inexorably. According to a recent study made by the Cabinet Information and Decision Support Centre (IDSC), although the number of voters registered during the 2000 parliamentary elections stood at 24 million, only four million (or barely 20 per cent) bothered to vote. Worse, the IDSC study said, a large number of Egypt's potential voters do not currently have registration cards, thus preventing many interested Egyptians from voting. The IDSC argued that as citizens must obtain a registration card in the last three months of every year to be eligible to vote in elections the next year, few bothered in 2004 to do so because they did not expect that 2005 will see multi- candidate presidential elections and many do not care about parliamentary elections because they think its results are a foregone conclusion in favour of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP). The IDSC study also shows that 84 per cent of potential female voters do not have voting cards. "Besides, 16 per cent of those who have belong to the NDP," the study said. Ayman Nour, candidate of Al-Ghad (Tomorrow) Party, complained that the PEC's stipulation that voters show their voting cards could prevent 70 per cent of registered voters from voting. In general, candidates complained that the PEC refrained from providing them with copies of nationwide voter lists. They further complain that the current lists are old and that it is the NDP -- as revealed by the presidential campaign "the Crescent of the Future" -- that has exclusive and easy access to voter lists. In the second stage of voting, Atawiya indicated, voters will be requested to go to curtained-off voting booths to mark a "yes" symbol before one of the names of the 10 presidential candidates listed on the ballot cards. This card was designed to include the names of the 10 candidates in accordance with the order in which they registered their names and symbols with PEC. This order goes as follows: Hosni Mubarak (crescent), Ayman Nour (palm tree), Osama Shaltout (pyramids), Wahid El-Oqsori (sun), Ibrahim Turk (lighthouse), Ahmed El-Sabahi (book), Rifaat Al-Agroudi (lamp), Fawzi Ghazal (wheat), Nouman Gomaa (torch), Mamdouh Qenawi (house). At the top of the ballot card there is the symbol of the PEC itself. It is a map of Egypt in green color, with the voting box in its middle, and put in a circle sporting the three colours of Egypt's national flag (white, red and black). One day ahead of the elections, ballot cards will be in the possession of judges who will be in charge of supervising and monitoring polling stations. "These judges," said Atawiya, "will make sure that these cards do not find their way outside polling stations or that anyone will be able to stuff ballot boxes by inserting ballots before the polls open or after they close." Opposition forces complain that the ballot boxes are made of wood and that most of them are in bad need of repair or even without locks, demanding instead transparent boxes (to make sure they start the day empty) with solid locks. Abul-Ezz El-Hariri, a leftist MP, told Al-Ahram Weekly that he expects the election to be rife with irregularities. This, he argued, is due largely to voter lists that are defunct and distorted, leading inevitably to a result that does not reflect reality. According to Atawiya, voters must observe four rules in order to ensure that their votes do not become invalid. These, said Atawiya, stipulate that voters must mark a "yes" symbol in the box put on the right of the name and the symbol of the favoured candidate. In doing so, Atawiya added, voters must use a pencil. Voters must also refrain from writing their names on the ballot cards or leave the card without marking any name. Atawiya warned that registered voters who refrain from voting would face paying a fine of LE100.
