CAIRO - During his recent visit to Egypt, Indian Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi briefed different Egyptian authorities about Indian democratic practices, especially voting, which is still a stumbling block for many Egyptians, who are worried that the old malpractices might sneak back into the voting here, especially in the absence of strong security. India, one of the world's biggest democracies, has successfully overcome many problems that still represent obstacles on the road to Egyptian democracy. Quraishi believes that Egyptians should create their own system that guarantees transparency and suits their conditions. But, with Egypt due to hold parliamentary and presidential elections later this year, the Indian official says his country is ready to offer whatever support is needed in the Arab world's most populous country. During his four-day visit, Quraishi gave a presentation on the use of electronic voting machines or what he described as the ‘magic tools of democracy', which have been in use in India for some years. "We are ready to share our voting technology with the Egyptians, if they need it while developing their own system,” he told reporters in Cairo. “We are also ready to lend them some of these machines for experimental use and are ready to supply Egypt with whatever they ask for,” added Quraishi, saying that the Indian machine, which has been used in India since 1998, employs very simple technology and makes cheating very difficult. One machine costs $200 and can serve up to 1,200 voters. It works in different conditions and can deal with illiterate people and communities which use more than one language. These machines, which have saved India 10,000 tonnes of paper annually, give very fast, accurate results and make fraud virtually impossible, said Quraishi, whose Election Commission is the sole authority for supervising India's elections. He astonished his audience when he said that no-one could interfere in the work of the Election Commission during the voting not even the judges, whose work only comes after or before the election process. “During the elections, we control everything including the security forces. We are responsible for tackling complaints from any party, while media reports may be considered as complaints that should be investigated.” During India's recent elections, they had 11 million people working under the Chief Commissioner. They were trained before the elections and there were no mistakes. Quraishi said that they had laws that prevented candidates from manipulating religion, religious places or money in their campaigns. “Any Egyptian official who wants to come to India to witness our elections is very welcome,” said Quraishi. Egypt's legislative elections late last year were marred by violence and massive fraud, according to local monitors.
