Egyptian expatriates will most likely not have a say in the country's first multi-candidate presidential elections. Mohamed El-Sayed gauges reactions and finds out why A great many of the four million Egyptians living abroad feel entitled to have a say in the country's first ever multi- candidate presidential elections. But with the details of the new presidential election law being hammered out in parliament, it appears expatriates might not get that right -- at least not this time round. "Egyptians living and working abroad have the right to vote," said Labour Minister Ahmed El-Amawi during an intense People's Assembly debate on the new law on Monday. El-Amawi was recently in Switzerland, where he said Egyptian expatriates expressed their interest in voting in the coming elections. "However, we are unprepared to carry out the administrative tasks necessary to grant them that right this September," El-Amawi said, "so they will have to wait until 2011." If final, that decision is sure to upset some of those living abroad who had their hearts set on participating in such a historic event. Ahmed Faheem, an Egyptian engineer currently based in Saudi Arabia, is one of about two million Egyptian expatriates who live and work in the Gulf region. Faheem said he would be "very angry" about not being able to take part in the coming elections. "The political climate must be rectified," Faheem said, and Egyptians abroad should play a role in that process since "we are Egyptians at the end". Marketing consultant Mohamed Ali, who has been living in Australia since 1970, couldn't care less about the new constitutional amendment, since "my vote would never make a difference, as there is no true democratic process in Egypt." Nonetheless, even on a symbolic level, Ali said excluding Egyptian expatriates "is just another sign of the Egyptian government's lack of commitment to any form of democracy, as well as an insult to Egyptians living abroad. It's saying that we don't count, which is very unfair because most Egyptians living abroad really love their country and remain interested in its welfare. I've been brought up almost my whole life outside of Egypt and I still feel a strong attachment to it." Ali said many of those living abroad remain very well connected with events taking place back home, another reason why they would be able to make an informed vote. "Many countries let their expatriates vote; I don't understand why Egypt should be any different. Is the Egyptian government afraid of the way expatriates would vote, or is it a cost issue?" The answers to those questions remain up in the air. Repeated attempts to contact the Foreign Ministry official in charge of expatriate affairs went unanswered. Parliamentary Speaker Ahmed Fathi Sorour, meanwhile, has said that "allowing Egyptian expatriates to vote in the upcoming presidential elections means that poll stations need to be established abroad." But while Sorour left the matter to the newly formed Presidential Elections Committee to decide, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal El-Shazli appeared to cut the discussion short. It will be difficult to include expatriate votes in the coming elections, he said, since "it would be tough to establish judicial supervision outside the country." In fact, it appears that prior to 2000, when judicial supervision began to be mandated for elections, Egyptians abroad were allowed to vote at loosely organised, symbolic poll stations at some Egyptian embassies. These were generally used as publicity tools by the government to show that expatriates supported the president. Hamed Shamma, an Egyptian who is currently pursuing a PhD at a Washington DC university, didn't ask the Egyptian Embassy there about the possibility of voting in the coming presidential elections. "I believe that the embassy should approach us," he said, "but there is not much interaction between Egyptians in the US and the embassy, like [there is with nationals of] other embassies like Kuwait or Saudi Arabia." Shamma thinks that Egyptians abroad "can bring their expertise, knowledge and skills to enhance Egypt's political life. They should be deeply involved in this political reform process." Actually, there were reports in last week's newspapers that Egyptian- American Nobel Laureate Ahmed Zweil was considering the possibility of running in the coming presidential elections. According to independent papers like Al-Dostour and Sawt Al-Umma, the California-based scientist has supposedly been receiving thousands of e- mails from Egyptians urging him to run. In the UK, meanwhile, where 75,000 permanent and temporary Egyptian immigrants live, a movement called the "Save Egypt Front" was launched in late April. With membership culled from Europe-based Egyptian expatriates, the movement calls for comprehensive political and constitutional reform in Egypt. One UK-based expatriate, Islamic school owner Soha El-Samman, says, "Egyptians here in Britain are very interested in the current political changes in Egypt." Although she hasn't yet inquired at the embassy about the possibility of participating in this September's vote, El-Samman hopes the government will establish mechanisms like voting via the Internet or ordinary mail to make it easier for expatriates to participate. In any case, El-Samman is sceptical about the changing political atmosphere, because "the Egyptian government does what it likes. We still have a long way to go before we achieve the kind of real democracy that we see here in Britain. And I don't think the coming elections will come up with new faces." Other UK-based Egyptians are both apathetic and cynical about the prospects of their homeland becoming a vibrant democracy. Former diplomat and deputy head of BBC Arabic Mustafa Anwar, who holds both the British and Egyptian nationalities, says he has "voted in British elections, but never taken part in any Egyptian elections". Even if expatriates were given the right to vote, he will not cast his vote in the coming presidential elections, "since I know my vote will not count". His reasoning is that he does not want to take part in an "illusion. We still lack the basic components of a real democratic system. Even if the elections were supervised by judges, this is not the point; there are so many other steps the government should take if they really want to establish a genuine democracy." Anwar called the recent political changes in Egypt "cosmetic, not democratic. Real democracy should be based on democratic institutions, not just by amending an article of the constitution. The changes are designed to improve the country's image abroad." Anwar said that when Egyptians living abroad "criticise the Egyptian regime, or try to take part in the country's political life, they are called traitors". His two daughters, 20 and 16, meanwhile, have been "brought up in the lap of a true democracy; they are not convinced by, or even interested in, what's happening in Egypt. They think that Egyptian democracy is a big lie". While not as negative, an Egyptian engineer who has been living in the US since 1972, still thinks "these changes should have started in the 1970s and 1980s, not in 2005. The situation would have been quite different today." In any case, he said, "Egyptians abroad should be allowed to participate in a constructive way through legitimate channels. Unfortunately, this mechanism is not in place now." This same dynamic seems to reflect the way the government has always dealt with its expatriates, the engineer said. While there has been much rhetoric emerging from Cairo about how important it is for Egypt to benefit from the expertise gained by Egyptians living abroad, there has never been a serious political will or mechanism put in place to actually do so.
