For the first time in living memory Egyptian expatriates are able to vote in domestic elections. Al-Ahram Weekly samples their opinions, writes Nader Habib Following changes to the constitutional declaration in line with a State Council Administrative Court ruling stating Egyptians living abroad must be able to vote, expatriates with national ID numbers that predate 27 September 2011 can now vote at their relevant embassy and consulate, provided they registered on the website of the Elections Committee. Expatriates interviewed on Facebook reacted with varying degrees of enthusiasm to their new-found right. Suzy Morad, who lives in Dubai, says that she has always followed news from home closely. "This will be the first time I vote. In the past the now disbanded National Democratic Party (NDP) relieved Egyptians of that responsibility by fabricating the election results it wanted. To tell the truth, the upcoming elections seem more show than substance. We don't know the candidates and have little idea what they stand for. Not everyone is glued to the Internet and TV talk shows. and living in different time zones expatriates can lose touch. The expatriate vote will be far more relevant in the presidential elections, when the candidates and their programmes will be known months in advance." Voting overseas, says Morad, can present its own logistical difficulties. "The distance between where people live and the embassy may be considerable. Many people will have to make long journeys in order to cast their ballot." Morad, a Christian, says her greatest concern is Islamist extremism. "When the revolution broke out I was very sad. I shed tears for Hosni Mubarak, who may have helped some people steal from us and rob the country blind, but at least we felt safe... When Omar Suleiman said that Egyptians were not ready for democracy, he was right. I knew that the Salafis and the Islamist groups were bad news." Safwat Salama, a dentist who's been living in the US for over 35 years, complains about the short time expatriates were given to register. "Registration opened a day before Eid Al-Adha, which here was followed by Veterans Day, meaning people had very little time to get their papers ready. The law allows only people who have IDs dated prior to 27 September to register, which is another problem. Also, the website of the Egyptian embassy was either slow or unresponsive." Salama, too is worried about Muslim extremists. "A significant number of Egyptians are uneducated and susceptible to religion. I noticed that a large proportion of Egyptians living in Saudi Arabia have registered, and I don't know if they are extremist or moderate. I would like to see Egyptian expatriates voting for those who care for Egypt, not for those who talk theology." Salama does not think that the US is particularly concerned about who wins the elections. "What matters to Americans, especially in New York with its strong Jewish groups, is the regional impact of Islamists ruling in Egypt. The impact on relations with Israel is all that matters to them. As for Egyptian Americans, they care for freedom, for political and religious freedom." The number of voters who registered is only a fraction of the total number of expatriates, a result, says Haitham Nabil of the Ministry of State for Administrative Development, of the belated decision to allow them to vote. Nabil, who works on the website of the Supreme Elections Committee, says many expatriates were caught by surprise. "Many have yet to obtain national ID cards. The most we could hope to register would be 500,000 out of six million expatriates." The real power of the expatriate vote, says Nabil, may assert itself in the presidential elections. "The presidential elections are what matters. You cannot expect someone who has lived abroad for 15 years to know who to vote for in parliamentary elections. You cannot expect his children, who may not have visited for years, to know who's who." Nabil, however, is optimistic about the poll, insisting that "trial and error aside, this is truly a democratic experience". Many expatriates have complained of not being able to access the website before the deadline. Nabil said that this was unfortunate but to be expected, given that the site is interactive and can only handle a limited amount of traffic. In all some 355,569 expatriates managed to register to vote. By Nader Habib
