CAIRO: Egyptian expats have started registering their names on the Supreme Electoral Commission's official website as they gear up to cast their vote in the upcoming parliamentary elections, which kick-off on Nov. 28. Registration to elections2011.eg will be open from Thursday Nov. 10 to Nov. 19 according to the political participation law and will only be permitted to Egyptian expats who carry a national identification card that was issued before Sept. 27, 2011 when the electoral databases were finalized. "For those who don't have their ID on hand, its number is in their passports," said Nasser Amin, head of the Arab Center for the Independence of the Judicial and Legal Profession, pointing out that the registration is an initial step to support democracy on the ground. However, Amer Ali, one Egyptian living in Saudi Arabia, told Daily News Egypt that passports are sometimes kept with the employer where they work or with the workers' guarantor. The registration process began at 8 am on Thursday with high turnout, according to Prime Minister Essam Sharaf's statement on his official Facebook page. Mahmoud Omara, an Egyptian expat living in France who was delegated by Sharaf to handle the file of Egyptian expats voting abroad in Cabinet, said, "I doubt it would attract more than half a million out of more than 8 million Egyptians abroad." Omara believes Egyptian expats are keener to cast their ballots in the presidential elections and in the yet-to-be drafted constitution referendum. "Not many people will be interested in travelling from Marseille to Paris to cast their vote for a candidate in Upper Egypt for instance," he said. Sharaf said that this is an important in Egypt's history. "Nothing is greater than allowing all Egyptians, wherever they are, to take part in the establishment of permanent legitimacy.” He added that the mechanism by which expats will vote will be announced in detail soon. "This proves that when they [the authorities] want to do something, they do it," Omara said. There was no need, he said, for arguments by the government trying to hinder the process. "It is now a reality, and the simplicity of the process proves that they were only arguing in vain," Omara said. The controversy dates back to last April when the Cabinet announced that Egyptians living overseas would only be allowed to vote in presidential elections and public referendums at embassies and consulates as part of amendments to the political participation law. The SEC and members of the interim government then argued that there is no inventory of the location or the real number of Egyptians living abroad which makes it difficult to identify the constituencies they belong to. They added that allowing Egyptian expats to vote in parliamentary elections will need a legislative amendment for them to be excluded from the process of judicial supervision, to allow the process to be supervised by members of the diplomatic corps using their passports instead of their ID cards. Last month, an administrative court ruled that Egyptian expats deprived of the vote under ousted president Hosni Mubarak, will have the right to cast their ballots in the upcoming polls. Councilor Abdel Moe'z Ibrahim, head of the SEC, said in a press statement Saturday that a new article is being added to the interim constitutional declaration to allow expats to vote. Ibrahim added that the article will allow expats to vote at Egyptian embassies or consulates under the supervision of ambassadors and consuls. It was reported that on the first day there were a few technical problems with the registration process, with some complaining that there was a glitch requiring users to submit their mother's name in Arabic to prove their identity.
