CAIRO: Despite reports of some violations by local monitoring groups, the Carter Center believes it is "too soon to tell" whether abuses in the electoral process are widespread, according to Ebie Dupont, deputy field office director for the center. The center, based in Atlanta, Georgia, has observed elections in 35 countries since 1989, and currently has "about 40 witnesses” out in governorates around Egypt. Most of these witnesses have served in other observer missions, and despite being officially considered “followers” or “witnesses” as opposed to “monitors,” the center maintains that it is being given full access to the electoral process. Controversy surrounded initial reports of former American President Jimmy Carter's meeting with Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi in October. “He's invited me to 'witness' the election,” Carter told Reuters. “That's a distance from 'observing'." “We have been assured by the Supreme Judicial Commission for Elections that, despite being identified as ‘witnesses' or ‘followers,' our delegation will be provided the access we deem necessary to provide a credible and impartial assessment of the conduct of the election,” said Field Office Director Sanne van den Bergh in a recent statement. “We have two kinds of witnesses,” Dupont explained to Daily News Egypt. Long-term witnesses arrived in early November and deployed to nine governorates, and then “medium-term” witnesses arrived a week ago. “We don't have anybody who is short term,” Dupont said. The Carter Center will release statements after each phase of voting for parliamentary elections. In addition to the center's followers, who are working in pairs, witnesses from Amnesty International, the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, the National Democratic Institute, and the International Republican Institute are joining others from Denmark, Turkey, Poland, and South Africa. "While deployed, delegates will evaluate election administration, campaigning, voting and counting procedures, and other issues related to the overall electoral process in Egypt," the Carter Center announced. At a recent lecture, lawyer Negad El-Boraie criticized the ability of foreign groups to accurately observe the process, singling out the Carter Center for giving legitimacy, they say, to a flawed process. "They know nothing about the country," he said to an audience at the American University in Cairo downtown, "What are they going to observe?" Preliminary statements from the National Council for Human Rights have mentioned reports of 400 complaints of “irregularities” on the first day of voting. Until an official statement is released, Carter Center “witnesses” remain tight-lipped about their impressions. “We're really excited to be here,” said one official, stationed in Fayoum. “That's about all I can tell you.” Local groups monitoring the 2011 parliamentary elections, such as the Ibn Khaldoun Center for Democratic Studies and the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, in addition to 36 other organizations, submitted numerous reports on Monday and Tuesday documenting violations in the nine governorates. On Tuesday, the majority of documented violations were distributing promotional flyers outside and inside polling stations and late arrivals by judges supervising elections leading to delays in opening polling stations. The latter was not as sever as Monday, when stations in several districts remained closed for the entire day. Delivery of ballots was late in several stations in Ain Shams and Mattariya, which also experienced the same problem on Monday. According to EOHR, a judge in a Mattariya polling station, closed the doors and left in frustration with the delay. The Ibn Khaldoun center said that some older women were seen receiving money, LE 500, to vote to a certain candidate, leading to clashes between the rival candidate and the supervising judge. The center didn't specify the polling stations. In Port Said, one woman wearing the face veil voted without revealing her face to the judge supervising the polling stations to confirm her identity, the center said. In Luxor, administrative staff in at least three polling stations lead illiterate voters to choose specific candidates. EOHR reported a similar incident in Fayoum. EOHR also reported what it described as “thuggish acts,” one of which was a clash between the female supporters of the Freedom and Justice and Al-Nour Parties in Damietta. Military police intervened to restore calm. –Additional reporting by Lina Marwan and Amir Makar.
