‘Irregularities reported’ during election

Egypt witnessed its first ever contested presidential elections on Wednesday, with more than 32 million eligible voters choosing a leader from 10 candidates. Previously, the parliament, which is dominated by the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), approved a sole candidate who was voted for through a national referendum. As a result the incumbent Hosni Mubarak has remained in power for 24 years and observers expected him to win again. The three front runners for the election are Mubarak of the ruling NDP, Ayman Nour of the newly established Ghadd (tomorrow) Party and Noman Goma of the long established Wafd (delegation) Party. A few hours after polling booths were opened to the public, several civil society groups monitoring the election issued preliminary reports stating some irregularities. "There are a few observations in the first few hours of the voting that concern us," Mahmoud Aly of the Egyptian Group for Democratic Development, one of the local organisations in the Civil Society Coalition for Monitoring Elections, said. The group had 178 observers stationed in 72 electoral districts. "Campaigning is still taking place inside the polling booths and this is a violation of the law organising the elections," he said, adding that campaigning should have stopped on Monday. Aly added that some of the booths lacked privacy for voters. "In any polling booth, voters fill in the ballot behind a curtain, however some booths across the country do not have this. Voters have to fill in the ballots in front of officials and this forms a form of pressure on them," he explained According to him some opposition members have already filed reports against the NDP. "NDP supporters were allowed to vote without voting cards. This occurred in the governorates of Port Said, Ismailiya, al-Beheira and Marsa Matrouh". Local civil society groups were able to monitor the electoral process after the Presidential Elections Committee (PEC) announced on Wednesday to allow access to observers. It had previously denied them access inside polling stations. The country’s National Campaign for Monitoring the Elections (NCME) released a press release with initial observations concerning elections. According to the press release a few polling booths in different constituents did not open on time. Reports on voter turnout have varied, but no official figures have been released yet. "Some polling booths are full of voters and others are quiet empty," Muhammad Shamroukh, journalist of the state owned al-Ahram newspaper, said. A high turnout was cited early in the morning, but many people were not able to vote due to much confusion, he said. "Many polling booths have been changed without informing voters on where they should go to vote. As a result many people could not find their names enlisted and thus were not allowed to enter," he explained. Shamroukh added that the whole proceedure was being implemented manually, with no computers to sort out voters' names and thus slowing down the process. Meanwhile, the Kifaya (Enough) Movement organised a march from Tahrir (Liberation) Square in central Cairo to the Egyptian Press Syndicate in protest at the election. "We are demonstrating against the whole system starting from the amendment of the constitution to the current presidential elections," Muhammad Taema of the movement said. In February this year, Mubarak called upon the legislative bodies to revise the constitution to allow, for the first time in Egyptian history, competitive presidential elections. A referendum was held on 25 May on the amendment of article 76 of the constitution regulating the presidential elections. The Kifaya movement demonstrated against the amendment as it considered the change in the article to serve only the ruling NDP and said it reflected cosmetic changes only in the Egyptian political system.