CAIRO: The run-offs kicked off Monday in Cairo's first constituency, despite a court verdict to cancel the vote following violations in the counting phase. "I will head to the Prosecutor General's office now to file a complaint against the head of the Supreme Electoral Commission (SEC) for ignoring a court order and squandering public funds on invalid run-offs," said Saeid Abdel Meseih, head of the Egyptian Center for Development and Human Rights and lawyer representing independent candidate in this constituency, Magda Naguib. The Administrative Court issued a verdict Sunday night to annul the first round of parliamentary elections in the constituency that spans the districts of Shoubra, Sahel and Sharabiya which took place last week, due to several violations. The court also ordered the halt of run-offs in this constituency, after receiving 25 appeals on the results from candidates and lawyers. Councilor Abdel-Moez Ibrahim, head of SEC, said in a press conference Monday afternoon that until the Supreme Administrative Court issues a verdict, the elections and run-offs will go ahead as scheduled. The results, however, will not be announced. He stressed that only the Appeals Court can order a repeat of the elections once the results are out. He said elections in constituencies in Alexandria and Assiut were also contested in the court, with plaintiffs calling for canceling the elections due to violations. On Friday, Ibrahim admitted in a press conference that the improper spaces allocated for sorting and counting votes, led to halting the counting process by the responsible judge in that constituency. The station was expanded and the process resumed the next day, but the resulting chaos led to invalidating 90 ballot boxes, 15 of which were missing. Over 2,600 boxes were left intact. Ibrahim stressed that the reported violations would not void the elections. However, the Administrative Court cited in its verdict that judicial supervision over the whole electoral process stipulated by the constitutional decree, was absent for more than 10 hours, where the ballot boxes were left unsupervised by the judges. The SEC initially said that it didn't receive the verdict — or similar ones for other constituencies — from the Administrative Court, adding that the Appeals Court was the one with the jurisdiction to review any appeals during the elections process, according to the constitution. The commission explained that the Administrative Court is responsible for issuing verdicts regarding the elections before they kick-off, not after the results are announced. However, Abdel Meseih disagreed. "This is within the jurisdiction of the Administrative Court since the final results haven't been announced yet." He argued that the final results for both the closed party lists system and individual candidates system would be announced in January 2012, after elections are over in Egypt's 27 governorates. He claimed that Ibrahim refused to receive the court's verdict, which was officially sent to him Monday morning. Abdel Meseih explained that Judge Moataz Khafaga, monitoring the Shoubra and Sahel constituency, ordered the annulment of the vote counting process because candidates and their representatives were tampering with the ballot boxes and security forces were either absent or incapable of stopping them. The next day Ibrahim ordered the judges to resume the vote counting at 5 pm, after the process was stopped at 2 am. The candidates and their representatives were absent in the second vote counting, which according to Abdel Mesieh is illegal. "The head of SEC has no jurisdiction to give an order to resume the vote counting process; that's the monitoring judge's responsibility, while Ibrahim should only announce the results," Abdel Meseih said. Despite the fact that 15 ballot boxes were found missing and the content of 75 were scattered all over the floor, Ibrahim had stressed that security forces secured the ballot boxes and commended the police and military for securing the elections, calling them “heroes.” Abdel Meseih speculated that 90 ballot boxes would include an average of 90,000 votes, which could completely change the results in his client's favor. "This is a violation of the people's freedom of right and expression, which was completely disregarded due to negligence," he said. Abdel Meseih expected that SEC would appeal the court order, adding that the run-offs should be canceled until the Supreme Administrative Court gives its final verdict, according to the law.
