A senior Egyptian official renewed opposition to foreign monitoring of the nation's elections. “Egypt is a democratic country, where law and constitution prevail,” Safwat el-Sherif, the Secretary-General of the ruling National Democratic Party, told Egyptian TV. “I welcome honest competition with the opposition,” el-Sherif added a few hours before Egyptians go to polls today in the mid-term elections of the Shura Council. A campaign, launched on Egypt's official TV channels to coincide with today's mid-term elections of the Shura Council (the Upper House of the Egyptian Parliament), has drawn mixed responses from spin doctors and theorists of both ruling and opposition parties. Since the Higher Electoral Commission announced the names of candidates in the Shura Council elections, voters across the nation were bombarded via television channels by two words: “Participate and Vote”. The architects of this two-word campaign said that they were confident that those Egyptians who were entitled to cast their ballots in the general or presidential elections would appreciate the invitation. However, they asserted that they would not be upset if they failed to achieve their ultimate goal of motivating voters to go to polls Tuesday. They indicated that they were confident that their campaign would bring about remarkable results later this year, when voters would be asked to take part in the parliamentary elections. The campaign's organisers were also expecting a good response from Egyptian voters during the presidential elections later next year. These assertions came against warnings that the public's response to such campaigns associated with the general elections would be poor. Critics of the campaign called it “neither unprecedented nor inspiring”. Mohamed Heba, the Secretary of Youth in the ruling National Democratic Party, believes that this new campaign is intended to motivate voters to participate and commit themselves to their national duty. “The turnout of voters in the Shura Council elections has never been more than 25 per cent,” he said. “Accordingly, we have to inspire people to relinquish their political lethargy.” In an attempt to address larger number of voters, the campaign has also utilised posters and fliers, and due to the popularity of the Internet among youth, was also placed on Facebook. However, one graphic designer in an advertising and publicity agency did not express much enthusiasm about the campaign's ability to realise its ultimate goals easily. Identifying himself as Rami Abdel-Hamid, he said: “It remains very difficult to change a traditional and deep-rooted culture in society within a short time.” According to Abdel-Hamid, the campaign was initiated too late. “It was unfortunate that the ‘Participate and Vote' campaign was launched at a critical time, just days before the Shura Council elections.” He added that the audience would need a longer time to place their trust in the credibility of the campaign and its content, irrespective of its aims. “Such a campaign would lead to nowhere so long as people are sure that the results are a forgone conclusion,” said Mohamed Hatem, a governmental employee. “Vote rigging and vote buy have always determined election results in Egypt.”
