CAIRO - Millions of Egyptian expatriates see no good reason for being denied the right to vote in the homeland's various elections. Those Egyptians, many of them recently staged protests in front of Egyptian embassies in 30 countries, envied their Tunisian counterparts as they saw them casting their ballots in historic parliamentary elections at the weekend. Tunisia was the first to initiate the blossoming of the Arab Spring earlier this year, followed by Egypt a couple of weeks later. So why should Egypt lag behind? The Egyptians working abroad pump millions of dollars into the national economy through remittances. In addition, they pay taxes and customs duties. But no government official has come forward to tell them why they are denied access to the ballot box, now that their homeland is in the throes of democratic transformation. Egyptian expatriates are ratcheting up their pressure as the parliamentary elections loom. These elections will be the first since Mubarak was forced to quit power in February. They are determined to keep fighting for their long-denied right. An Egyptian court is due to rule today on a lawsuit filed to give Egyptian expatriates the right to vote. The suit demands this right be granted and exercised by setting up polling stations inside the Egyptian embassies abroad. “The interim executive authority, represented by the ruling military council, has promised more than once to respond to this demand and put the Egyptians abroad on an equal footing with their compatriots at home in terms of participating in elections,” said Khaled Ali, a pro-democracy activist. “However, this promise has yet to be fulfilled,” he added. Ali is one of several advocates and local human rights groups are throwing their weight behind the suit. According to him, depriving Egyptian expatriates of the right to vote violates the law, constitution and international conventions. The Assistant Foreign Minister for Expatriate Affairs, Ahmad Ragheb, recently said that the numbers of Egyptians working abroad ranged from 9 to 10 million. The official raised hopes for resolving the issue by saying that his ministry is prepared to help them practise the suffrage right. "The Foreign Ministry is ready to enable the Egyptians abroad to vote," Ragheb said. He added that it could be conducted via the Internet, voting in Egyptian embassies abroad or through special electoral commissions. But the process will not see the light of the day without a clear go-ahead from the country's military rulers. If the court approved this right, but its ruling were ignored by the military junta, Egypt's coming parliamentary and presidential elections would be null and void, according to legal experts.
