CAIRO: Egyptian human rights groups are coming together in an effort to ensure future elections in Egypt are free and fair. This week the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) announced the formation of a human rights coalition consisting of 148 rights groups and organizations to monitor elections in the country. Hafez Abu Saeda, the head of the EOHR, told reporters that the coalition will be called the National Committee for Monitoring Elections in Egypt.” The move comes as a number of international and local groups have demanded Egypt employ foreign observers to monitor elections after controversy ruled in 2005 after disputes in the Parliamentary election. A number of judges publicly denounced the results, saying that the government was involved in vote-rigging, a claim Cairo has repeatedly denied. However, the government continues to refused to allow foreign observers into Egypt to monitor elections. Next year, Egypt is scheduled to hold a Parliamentary vote followed by a presidential election in 2011. Abu Saeda said that the coalition will be independent and will deal with all organizations and other committees including international institutions, which will monitor the upcoming elections elections. He added that “our main demand is to change the law of political rights in order to approve monitoring elections, not to take it as a ‘grant' or a ‘gift' from the government given to organizations that would supervise the elections, especially in the complete absence of judicial supervision and the limiting of the actions of the electoral process to government employees, which raises a lot of questions in regards to the integrity of elections as a whole.” He continued, saying that he received preliminary approvals from several parties, such as the Wafd, Tagama'a, Nasserist, the Socialist Egyptian Arab Party and Al Ahrar Party. He also said that he will address the General Federation of Labor and Egypt workers union, “as it is the largest organizational representation of workers and will invite them to take part in the coalition.” Abu Saeda ruled out accepting financial assistance from abroad or from foreign organizations and said that each individual organization will be responsible for their financing. **reporting by Mohamed Abdel Salam BM
