One hundred Egyptian embassies overseas have sent the results of their vote counts to the Foreign Ministry in diplomatic telegrams, said Amr Roshdy, the spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry. Roshdy told Al-Masry Al-Youm that the Foreign Ministry will send the results to the High Elections Commission as soon as they arrive. He added that the ministry is awaiting the results from the remaining embassies. The total number of expatriate Egyptians who voted in the first phase of elections is as follows, added Roshdy: 30,000 in Saudi Arabia, 26,000 in Kuwait, 12,000 in the UAE, 6000 in Qatar, 1700 in Oman, 1350 in Britain and 5000 in Canada. Roshdy reassured expatriate Egyptians that their votes will not be manipulated, and added that Egyptian embassies do not have any interest in fixing the result in favor of a certain party or candidate. In Brussels, eight Egyptian volunteers were chosen to participate in the vote-counting process, after the embassies and consulates asked for their help. Seven of the volunteers are Egyptians living in Belgium and one was from Luxembourg. The youths are both Muslim and Coptic and belong to different movements. The ambassador and embassy staff were present during the process. Egyptians without legal residency papers were not allowed to vote. "If it weren't for the legal residency requirement, voters would have increased,” an illegal Egyptian resident in Belgium complained. In Kuwait, a randomly selected group of Egyptians was allowed to monitor the vote-counting process. Egyptian Ambassador to Kuwait Abdel Karim Suleiman said the total number of voters in the first phase has reached approximately 23,000 of 30,000 registered voters.
