CAIRO: Less than 100,000 Egyptians living abroad have registered to vote in the upcoming parliamentary elections out of an estimated 8 million since electronic registration began last Thursday, according to data on the official elections website. The latest count on elections2011.eg, which took place on Nov. 13 at 8:00 pm, shows that 99,120 expats have registered, the majority of which reside in Saudi Arabia, accounting for 40,729. Less than 5,000 Egyptians in the US registered to vote, fueling speculation that the whole initiative might be called off. Registration, which started on Nov. 10, ends on Nov. 19 while the first phase of the parliamentary elections is on Nov. 28. Registration is open to all expats who carry a national identification card issued before Sept. 27, 2011 when the electoral databases were finalized. After much campaigning abroad and within Egypt, expats were only allowed to vote through a court verdict. Many politicians and observers speculated that the expat vote would be a game-changer. The low turnout is due to the lack of media campaigns announcing the registration, said Nasser Amin, head of the Arab Center for the Independence of the Judicial and Legal Profession. “There hasn't been an adequate media campaign telling Egyptians abroad that they can vote in the upcoming parliamentary elections and informing them of the registration process,” said the veteran lawyer also running in the elections. Such a campaign, he added, has to emphasize the importance of political participation in this crucial period in Egypt's history. “There has been a lot of hearsay and controversy regarding the issue of expats voting, so a lot of those abroad may be confused and don't know whether they can vote or not,” he said. He suggested an advertising campaign on all major international news outlets such as CNN and BBC. Mahmoud Omara, an Egyptian expat living in France who was delegated by Prime Minister Essam Sharaf to handle the file of Egyptian expats voting, previously told DNE that he doubts the parliamentary elections would attract more than half a million people. He said 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 traveling from Marseille to Paris to cast their vote for a candidate in Upper Egypt for instance," he said when the registration began last week.
