EGYPTIANS GO TO THE POLLS today in the first vote since protests pushed former president Hosni Mubarak from power last month.
Long lines formed outside polling stations today, as people prepared to vote on a range of constitutional reforms sponsored by the ruling military.
“This is a historic day for Egypt,” Deputy Prime Minister Yaha al-Gamal said after casting his vote in Cairo.
“I had never seen such large numbers of voters in Egypt. Finally, the people of Egypt have come to realise that their vote counts.”
Voters were being asked to cast ballots to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to the entire package of nine changes and preliminary results will be announced tomorrow. A ‘yes’ vote would allow parliamentary and presidential elections to be held later this year or early in the next, whereas a ‘no’ vote could force the military to extend the six-month deadline it has set for the handover of power to an elected civilian government.
About half of Egypt’s 80m people are eligible voters and the military, in a bid to get the vote out, has decreed that they would be allowed to cast their ballots at any polling centre in the country with their national ID cards — issued to those 18 and older — as the only required proof of identity.
Egyptian elections have for decades been defined by widespread fraud designed to ensure victory for the regime.
Lack of faith in the process, along with violence and intimidation, have kept most voters away. But the trust in the system appears to have come back.
“I am very excited to be doing this,” Alaa al-Sharqawy, an engineering lecturer, said as he was about to cast his vote in Cairo. “It’s true that the amendments have polarised us, but I am glad we are voting.”
Critics
The critics say elections this year will overwhelm the dozens of new political parties born out of the 25 January – 11 February uprising and give unfair advantage to Mubarak’s National Democratic Party and the Muslim Brotherhood, the two largest and best organized political forces in the country.
Leading the “no” campaign are two likely presidential candidates — Nobel Peace laureate and former head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency Mohamed ElBaradei and Amr Moussa, the current secretary general of the Arab League and former foreign minister.
ElBaradei told a conference in New Delhi on Friday that Egyptians should vote against the constitutional amendments, saying that after decades of repression the newly formed political parties in Egypt should be given time to prepare for future parliamentary elections.
The Muslim Brotherhood is strongly campaigning for the adoption of the changes, a position that has set it apart from almost all other political groups in the country. The Brotherhood advocates the installment of an Islamic government in Egypt and the ambivalence of its position on the role of women and minority Christians worry large segments of society.
- AP
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