For the first time since 1952, parliamentary elections are under genuine judicial supervision, Mona El-Nahhas reports On 28 November millions of Egyptians eager to practise their political rights rushed to the ballot stations to cast their votes in the first parliamentary polls to be held after the 25 January Revolution. To guarantee complete judicial supervision over the elections, the poll was divided into three stages, each stage covering nine governorates and with a two-week rest period separating the phases. The first stage, covering the governorates of Cairo, Alexandria, Port Said, Damietta, Kafr Al-Sheikh, the Red Sea, Fayoum, Assiut and Luxor, started on 28 November with 3,809 candidates running for 168 parliamentary seats. The nine governorates were divided into 28 constituencies for candidates running for single seats and 16 constituencies for those running via the electoral lists of political parties. To ensure the maximum participation of voters, a majority of whom became noticeably concerned in the wake of the bloody Tahrir Square events just days before the ballot began, it was decided to extend the voting for another 24 hours, thus ending on Tuesday evening instead of Monday. The extension will be applied to the two remaining stages. According to statistics released by the Supreme Elections Committee (SEC) which supervises the entire electoral process, 9,841 electoral committees hosted voters of the first stage, whose number was estimated at 17.5 million. The number of judges, prosecutors and members of the judicial bodies tasked with supervising the first stage exceeded 10,000. Each electoral committee was headed by a judge who had sole control over the ballots. Employees working for the Justice Ministry were called in to help in administrative work. Around 25,000 licences were handed out to 128 NGOs that asked to monitor the poll. "The turnout exceeded all our expectations," said judge Abdel-Moez Ibrahim, head of the SEC during a press conference held at noon on Monday. On the voting days, the SEC held two press conferences daily to inform the public of the latest and to answer any question related to the electoral process. During the Monday and Tuesday news conferences, Ibrahim addressed complaints voiced by NGO monitors regarding the electoral process. It was reported that some ballot cards did not bear the official seal. The SEC announced that in cases of unsealed cards, the signature of the head of the branch electoral committee would lend them the required authenticity. NGO monitors registered around 500 complaints against political parties whose representatives distributed leaflets bearing the names and photos of their candidates in front of electoral committees, a violation of the law. The Freedom and Justice Party -- the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood -- the Free Egyptians Party founded by Coptic businessman Naguib Sawiris and the Salafist Nour Party were the three major parties accused. The liberal Wafd Party attacked the three for using religion to influence voters. According to the law, all forms of electoral propaganda must stop a week before the poll. According to judge Ibrahim, the continuation of electoral propaganda until the day of the voting "is a crime which should be investigated by the general prosecution." The delay in opening voting stations was another complaint voiced by a large number of voters. The delay was attributed in part to judges not arriving on time. At other booths, ballot cards were not available because drivers were late in transporting them. As such, the SEC decided to extend the voting for another two hours, ending at 9pm instead of 7pm. After the Monday vote, judges were ordered by the SEC to close all ballot boxes using sealing wax and to lock the doors and windows of the electoral room until the next morning. On Tuesday, the SEC announced that electoral committees will continue working until the last voter had cast his ballot. Although showing remarkable flexibility in dealing with voters, judges were strict in applying the rules. Voting at one precinct in Al-Wayli constituency was cancelled after the judge discovered that voting had started before his arrival. Despite such complaints and technical problems, the electoral process as a whole went smoothly. No acts of thuggery, including killings, were reported. And, apparently understanding that the results will for the first time be a true reflection of the public, most people were keen on taking part in the unprecedented democratic experiment. From the early hours of the morning, thousands thronged in front of voting stations with lines snaking hundreds of metres long. As was stipulated by the SEC via the Internet and TV advertisements, after presenting their ID cards to the head of the electoral committee, voters were handed two separate ballot cards. On one, the voter needed to tick the name of an electoral list representing the political party desired. On the second long card, voters chose two candidates running for single parliamentary seats. After putting the two cards in two separate ballot boxes, a voter would dip his finger in phosphoric ink, then leave. Names of winners of the single seats would be announced the day following the voting process of each stage, while results of the electoral lists will be announced at the end of the three stages, the head of the SEC stated on Tuesday. For a vast majority of voters, this was the first time to go to the polls. During the former regime, the electoral process was run by what was widely perceived to be a corrupt security apparatus supervised by the now dissolved ruling National Democratic Party which derived its power from former president Hosni Mubarak. Along with thugs who helped ensure who would vote and who would not, the three worked as a team in rigging poll results. The presence of the judiciary was symbolic, meant only to lend rigged elections legitimacy. Following the revolution which ousted Mubarak, the supervising of all stages of the electoral process starting from preparing voters' lists, sorting out votes and announcing results, became the job of judges without interference of any other body. The role of the security apparatus became limited to safeguarding ballot stations from the outside. No security personnel are allowed inside electoral stations during any stage of the process. The new SEC, founded in July under a decree by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), proved vastly different from other former judicial electoral committees. Unlike the old SEC which supervised the parliamentary polls of 2010 which were widely regarded as being fixed, the current SEC quickly became seen as a pure judicial commission. All its seven members are judges, with no public figure among them. Besides having no clear role in conducting the poll, the 2010 SEC looked like a secret organisation, with few people even knowing where it was located. The SEC of the revolution, in comparison, from the outset set the rules which would guarantee that the polls would be transparent. Creating an updated database for voters based on their national identification cards replaced old paper lists of voters, which included names of the dead. On its website the SEC provided the information necessary to both candidates and voters. The website helped voters pinpoint their electoral stations without the need of getting such information from police stations. The SEC also opened at its headquarters an operation centre to receive inquiries and complaints. In general, the performance of the judiciary and the SEC in running the poll was largely praised by both voters and candidates.
