CAIRO: The scene today in Egypt: unprecedented willingness to vote. Both men and women from all ages and social perspectives determined to go voting. From a polling station in Al Haram district, long queues of citizens were waiting their turn to cast their votes. The process was going smoothly. Women's presence was manifest; however men's presence outweighs that of women. It didn't matter whether you went to say yes or no, as long as you decided to go. Saying yes to democracy and being positive, and No for corruption. The atmosphere there was so encouraging, democratic peaceful conversations and debates were taking place. No one is trying to impose his point of view but rather interested in hearing others' viewpoints and claims. Inside the station, there were officials responsible for recording your name and your ID number. After asking for a permission to take pictures of how the process was going inside, the man taking IDs refused claiming that it's banned. Then I tried to take live shots of the polling transparent boxes completely filled with ballots, but there were difficulties facing me when the man claimed this also is banned. If this were true and they had orders not to let anyone picture the process inside, then how will we as citizens observe the conduct of the referendum process to report any abuses? Where is transparency that we were calling for then?! It has been reported that in this polling station, they run out of ink. This made people after casting their votes, walk away which may not hinder some people from coming back later and vote more than once. Finding no ink to dip their finger inside wasn't this station only problem. Unlike what was said that you would be given the space to cast your vote in some private space to give you some privacy, to the contrary I had to mark my vote on the desk of the woman in charge. The ink shortage wasn't present in this station only, many reports have come to assure that they faced the same problem, and some ballots didn't have stamps on them. But there was an official announcement that all votes will be considered regardless of the stamps on them, as long as the signature of supervising judge was present. This relieved many people who were concerned about this issue. 19th of March witnessed real democracy being born by hands of Egyptian people. They have been waiting so long in the queues especially men due to their long queues but this didn't hold them back. Yesterday the phenomenon of bread queues was problematic and seen everywhere. Today after January 25th revolution, it has been replaced by referendum queues. And most probably it will be ongoing till the parliamentary and presidential elections. Awareness was our guarantee that we can make it to presidential elections with the same democratic trend. It's great to see Egyptians who were easily bothered of standing in bread queues last days, are waiting in way longer queues with no resentment at all seeking their freedom. Even some people who found crowds in front of polling stations, managed to come back later. No one is reluctant to vote anymore. They contended such long queues as long as they will be their path to new Egypt they seek, free Egypt that they were searching for so long ago. BM
