Will expatriate Egyptians be included in this month's voting frenzy? Some obstacles remain, writes Doaa El-Bey Two days before the deadline for the registration of names, preparations to allow Egyptians living abroad to vote are proceeding. The Egyptian consulate in Hamburg, like many embassies and consulates, has posted registration details on their Facebook page, and placed announcements in mosques and churches frequented by Egyptians. Other embassies have sent e-mails to the Egyptians registered with them giving details of how to cast votes. In Rome the embassy organised a meeting for leaders of the Egyptian community to inform them of registration and voting procedures. However, some details still need to be settled with the Supreme Electoral Commission (SEC) before voting begins on 28 November. SEC Chairman Abdel-Moez Ibrahim said this week that he had asked the government to clear away any remaining obstacles that might impede expatriates from voting. Chief among them is that some embassies and consulates are logistically unsuited for holding a ballot. Some embassies are too small, or their staff too few, to organise a ballot for hundreds, in some cases thousands, says Mohamed El-Meneisi, a former head of the consular department at the Egyptian Foreign Ministry. "Holding elections outside embassy buildings requires the consent of the host country. Some countries have already rejected the idea, while others require two months advance notification. It is already too late given the elections start his month," he told Al-Ahram Weekly. In an attempt to find a way out of the problem the SEC is examining the possibility of postal or e-mail votes, though they are alternatives still at the discussion stage. Also being discussed is whether votes cast abroad should be counted in situ or sent to Egypt. El-Meneisi expects that votes will be sorted at the embassies where they were cast and the results sent to Egypt on the same day via diplomatic bags. Registration to vote -- the deadline for which is 19 November -- has proved a major headache. So far a little over 100,000 voters have registered. An estimated 10,000,000 Egyptians are resident overseas. One problem, says El-Meneisi, is that a national ID card is needed to cast a vote. Many Egyptians living abroad do not have one. The Ministry of Interior has attempted to resolve the problem by sending delegations to issue national identity cards at consulates in the US, Canada and some European countries but the move came very late. It was only this month that the SEC agreed to embassies and consulates abroad being used as ballot venues. The decision followed an Administrative Court ruling last month ordering the government to facilitate voting for Egyptians resident abroad. The campaign to allow Egyptians abroad to vote in elections began immediately after the 25 January Revolution. Campaigners became more vocal when it became clear the ruling military council had little interest in pursuing the issue, with protests organised in front of major Egyptian embassies. The last organised protest -- advertised, as usual, online -- took place late last month in front of Egyptian embassies and consulates in London, Paris, New York and Washington. While many have predicted it will be almost impossible logistically to allow expatriate Egyptians to vote in this month's parliamentary elections, Tunisia managed to allow its citizens to vote. Long queues formed around Tunisia's embassies overseas as citizens waited patiently to cast their ballots in their country's first ever free vote.
