The Voter’s Voice Project - Final Report

7/24/2019 The Voters Voice Project - Final Report

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The Voters Voice Project Final Report 2008 Municipal Election Back to Square One

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The Voters VoiceProject

Final ReportFinal ReportFinal ReportFinal Report

2008 Municipal Election2008 Municipal Election2008 Municipal Election2008 Municipal Electionssss

Back to Square OneBack to Square OneBack to Square OneBack to Square One

Prepared By

Principal Researcher Statistical Advisor

Sameh Fawzi Dr.Ayman Zohry

Supervision

Ayman Okail


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Final Report 2008 Municipal Election Back to Square One

Prepared by

Principal researcher statistical advisor

Sameh Fawzi Dr. Ayman Zohry

Publisher

Maat for juridical and Constitutional Studies

The technical preparation and design of the cover:

Fathi Abdel-Alim

Registration Number: /2008

Supported By

Middle East Partnership Initiative

Address

King Faisal Street- Borg Al-Atebaa- 9thFloor-Appt. 908-Giza

Tel : 37759512))))2((((20++++

Fax : 37759512))))2((((20++++

Mobile: 6521175012))))2((((20++++&&&&6521170012))))2((((20++++012

Email : [email protected] & [email protected]

Website : www.maat-law.org & www. maatpeace.org

Director of the Centre:

Mr. Ayman Okeil
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.maat-law.org/http://www.maat-law.org/http://www.maat-law.org/http://www.maat-law.org/mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]


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About Maat

The Vision :

Under the umbrella of what our country witnesses recently such as intensifying

reformation claims, dedicating the concept of the state of institutions, the

sovereignty of the law and the positive steps that have been taken towards

supporting democracy. Therefore, it is our duty to have our own role to protect the

democratic gains and in performing positive role in pushing the reformation march

forward.

Thus, Maat center attempts to raise a generation that believe in the positive

participation in general affairs and in developing and activating the laws related to

these affairs.

Hence, Maat centers great concern is to increase legal awareness among the youth

in general and the youth lawyers in particular to qualify them and to guide them to

the right path to be able to deliver their message in the society sufficiently and

peacefully.

More over, Maat attempts to propagate, establish and strengthen the concept and

culture of democracy and peace among the Egyptian community, especially youth,

women and The Christians.

Therefore Maat endeavors to achieve the following objectives :

1- To propagate, enhance and strengthen the culture of peace, democracy, human

rights, denouncing violence and combating crime and corruption.

2- To activate the international charters and agreements that support the

everlasting and justice peace as well as human rights and increasing the general

awareness of it.

3- To enhance and encourage the democratic actions, the aware ruling and the

sovereignty of law.


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4-To increase the citizens awareness of the legal and constitutional rights.

5- Increasing the awareness of the youth leadership in the civil community

institutions and training them.

6-To prepare studies and researches to contribute in developing the legislative

building.

7-To offer legal and judicial support to the oppressed classes before the specialize

bodies and holding the symposiums ,conferences ,workshops ,training courses

awareness companies as well as publishing books ,reports and shifts and preparing

field researches and studies concerning Maats activities and enhancing

coordination , cooperation and exchanging experiences among the civil community

institutions, the local regional and international organizations .

Mechanisms:

Maat in achieving its aims depends mainly on the coming mechanisms:

1- Suing the judicial cases and offering legal help and support.

2- Observing the violations of human rights and confronting them legally.

3- Holding legal awareness campaigns to improve general participation and human

rights.

4-Holding campaigns to publish the culture of peace, denouncing violence and the

culture of others acceptance.

5-preparing legal and constitutional researches and studies.

6- Publishing legal booklets and reports.

7-Holding training courses, workshops, symposiums and conferences.

8-Establishing legal library to help the scholars in the field of human rights.

General Manager

Ayman Okail


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Maat Centre for juridical and Constitutional Studies is verythankful for the research team responsible for the data entryprocess and review of survey questionnaires for the tremendouseffort in order to compile the final report. The centre is alsothankful to the administrative team for supervising the executionof the project, the keenness on following-up all project details inorder to present a success model of monitoring Egyptian electionand the difficulties and challenges which the team succeeded to

overcome in order to achieve their mission.

(Ayman Okeil)

List of Civil Society Organizations, which contributed to the execution of the

monitoring process:

One World Foundation for Development

Masreya Organization

Maat Foundation for Peace, Development and Human Rights

Al Oun Association for Human Rights

Al Orouba Association for Human Rights

Justice and Citizenship Rights Foundation

The International Justice Centre for Legal Consultancies and Law

Tariq Al Nour Association

Justice and Citizenship Rights Centre

Thanks to:

Mr. Abd El- Nasser Kandil Project Director for his efforts to enrich the final

report of the project and for the sample papers presented to the research team

and which contributed to the final report of the project in a unique way.


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Preface

Elections are considered to be the democratic means for enforcing or changing

governance, being a mechanism for guaranteeing public participation and proper

representation of the existing governing system of the desires and orientation of

societys forces and for that reason, the existing governing system remains and its

officials maintain their seats of power, where they exercise their authorities and execute

their plans and programs, which aim at maintaining their interaction with citizens in

general and with voters in particular.

The Egyptian society has been exposed to various uses of democracy throughout its

history according to the wants and desires of the ruling class, which drove citizens to

avoid participating in democratic practice, despite the important role which democracy

plays in their lives.

During the last few years, several initiatives appeared in the horizon as a natural result

of the state of political and social turmoil- aiming at supporting public participation and

regaining masses as an essential party in the political reform equation. These initiatives

were the ones where civil society organizations played a simple role in developing them,

especially, after becoming a vital and essential partner to the reform process in order to

create a reality which recognizes the right of civil society organizations to discussdevelopment projects, amendments of laws and monitoring tools of practicing

democracy in order to measure the extend of its abidance by criteria of transparency and

accountability, stated for in international covenants and treaties.

Some may have some doubts when reviewing the details of the confrontation between

the executive power and human rights organizations within the framework of attempting

to determine the right of monitoring Egyptian general elections (this is the confrontation,

where human rights organizations succeeded in exercising its will either through court

rulings or through decisions of the Supreme Electoral committee). The source of doubts

might be the belief that the Egyptian experience is still very recent in monitoring

elections; nevertheless, reality indicates the contrary, since civil society organizations

have been striving to play that role for quiet a long time. The Egyptian experience in

monitoring elections developed and accumulated expertise over the decades until it

managed to invent creative patterns and modes of monitoring elections stemming from

the Egyptian political environment and matching patterns of Egyptian thought, which

aims at developing its local experience and revealing the violations and breaches so that

it can be avoided in the future.


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The Voters Voice Project, carried out by Maat Centre for Legal and Constitutional

Studies, jointly with One World Foundation for Human Development and with support

of the Middle East Partnership Initiative(MEPI), is considered to be a model for a newmonitoring pattern, which took care of the importance of the voter and his/her public

orientation towards the practices and methods of the electoral process and at the same

time identifying the voters tendencies and biases of either acceptances or refusal. All in

all, the project is considered to be an experience worth of interest for the future record

and for further reference for building an electoral picture that is suitable for the interests

and ambitions of the Egyptian voter.

There is not doubt that the Egyptian voter was more than eager for the municipal

elections, since municipal elections in Egypt are not elite elections but more of a bigger

test for tribal ties in the Egyptian countryside. Additionally, the municipal elections areconsidered to be an opportunity for political parties, which are aiming at enforcing its

positions and its direct relationships with the masses and building real calibers capable

of dealing with their political environment without requiring a lot of financial support as

it was the case in the parliamentary elections, where parliament seats were booked for

candidates who are capable of paying more and who are capable of being the most

violent, as opposed to municipal elections, despite being accused of corruption,

municipal elections have been less violent and more influential for several reasons:

Firstly: Having a lot of candidates, which alleviates the pressure and tension and

increases the chances of forming alliances between candidates

Secondly: having a limited geographical coverage relating between voters and

candidates which allows voters to make a better choice based on their free will and

based on well-defined basics and principles rather than being based on tribal or

communal ties.

Lastly: The importance of municipal elections lies in the general atmosphere

accompanying the time of its announcement, where there existed a state of political

turmoil which gave certain new political forces an excellent opportunity of testing its

influence on the masses amidst amending a series of procedures and laws regulating the

electoral process. Thus, the municipal elections were a practical application of theinfluence of democratic reform on society, whether positive or negative.

Nevertheless, we can not safely maintain that the current round of municipal elections

brought a new addition to the scene to enforce the path of reform and pumping fresh

blood into the veins of the governing system on the individual or policy levels.

The municipal elections resembled an attempt where all parties concerned represented

what should have taken place in real election. The ruling system did not give more

attention than it usually gives, the opposition was busy with its internal problems and

conflicts and the ruling NDP dealt with the elections as a promotion for its calibers or a


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rotation of seats between them. Thus, everyone competed but with no win and everyone

walked but they were back to square one.

Introduction and ChallengesMaat Centre for Legal and Constitutional Studies was keen on presenting an initiative

for monitoring municipal elections as one of the forms of monitoring and following up

the elections despite the fact that the municipal elections, which were held in April of

2008, were held 2 years later than its expected date, according to the decision of the

Peoples Assembly not to hold the elections unless after a new law for Municipal

Administration has been approved and promulgated( which did not happen) and despite

the recent constitutional amendments, which included 34 articles of the Constitution and

which have been issued for a referendum on March 26th

, 2007, i.e. more than a yearbefore holding the elections. Such amendments were said to support decentralization and

empowering the concept of local governance (which has never been proven till now).

Maat Centre for Legal and Constitutional Studies considers monitoring of municipal

elections as one of the tasks, which civil society aims at realizing in order to guarantee

the its interaction with citizens, developing the culture of political participation and

enforcing the importance of a peaceful transfer of power through agreement and

disagreement while respecting the rights of others within a framework of values and

ethics, which have been stated for in international treaties and covenants, domestically

and internationally.

Out of the expertise, which Maat Centre for Legal and Constitutional Studies has

accumulated over the years in monitoring elections since its foundation in 2005. The

idea of monitoring elections has been carried out with a self-support and in cooperation

of One Word Foundation for Human Development and the Human Development

Association.

It has been taken into account, while designing the Voice of the Voter Project, to get out

of the narrow framework for monitoring, which leaves all matters in the hands of the

supervisor or the person monitoring the elections, who is sometimes, one of the politicalactivists, who adopts certain points of views towards the procedures taken and thus

presents his/her personal vision rather than the point of view of a person monitoring

elections, which is supposed to be unbiased. This is has been a drawback, which the

Egyptian experience of monitoring elections suffered from. This drawback drove us to

experiment new forms of mentoring tools and mechanisms in order to reach the most

neutral forms of monitoring elections.

As for the 2008 municipal elections, we depended in our recording of the electoral

process on the participation of voters in the monitoring process and recording events


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inside and outside the election committees to have our project turn into the voice of the

voter who carries out the analysis and observation of what he/she actually witnesses as

one form of supporting participation and motivating competition so as to promotedemocratic practices desired by most Egyptians.

More importantly, we have witnessed an exceptional number of monitoring teams in the

Egyptian monitoring experience, since our project did not stop at the opinions and views

of observers and field researchers, who reached nearly 1034 researcher in addition to

9400 voters, participated with their views and suggestions. Our teams managed to reach

the most difficult dimension of the electoral process, which is the secret ballot to acquire

information, and analyses, creating the largest experience for a monitoring team whose

numbers reached 10000 individuals.

Despite of all the difficulties and challenges faced, the samples and surveys of the

project at hand represent an addition to the Egyptian monitoring experience, to voters

and to the monitoring team. We aim to present a final report that can serve as a

document worth of analysis and become a future reference.

We are thankful for funding entities for the support they granted us in order to carry out

this monitoring project an for our partners in executing this project on the level of target

governorates and on the level of researchers who have shared with us every step of the

project and finally, we are thankful to the work team at Maat Centre for Legal and

Constitutional Studies, who have borne a lot with us in order to achieve what we have

achieved till the present moment.

Challenges of the ExperienceResorting to what is called, a voter questionnaire is considered to be a new

phenomenon in the electoral process, with its different dimensions, which is not familiar

among the methods of monitoring elections in the Arab region in general and in the

Egyptian society in particular. Thus, it was natural for this new method to be met with

challenges stemming from the novelty of the experience, however, most electoralentities got used to it since it is considered as an expression of a modern democratic

society. There are a number of challenges, which we can touch upon in this experience

as a way of evaluating the experience, aiming at developing future electoral experiences,

which are:

1.

There is a large tendency among voters towards mode answers and that is representinganswers to questions about what should be and not what actually is. That explains why

the answers to some questions scored 100 %. This is a state, which we can find in

societies undergoing a democratic transition, where there is a tendency among citizens


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to fear criticism and talk about positives more than negatives. This state is expected to

disappear with the passage of time, where the voter discovers constructive criticism

and real interaction with political phenomena, which helps the development of thepolitical process and the achievement of democratic transition.

2.

The large similarity in answers between voters and that is also due to the large

tendency towards model answers, let alone the fact that majority of voters belong to

the ruling party, the NDP. This in turn explains the small number of candidates from

the opposition or independent candidates and the weak public participation in the

elections in general. It is worth mentioning the boycotting, which has been called forby the Muslim Brotherhood and Kefaya movement.

3.

The study did not present a full visualization of the opinions and preferences of voters

despite the variety of questions- regarding a lot of issues, most important among

which is voters expectations of the future forms of democratic practices being the

main foundation of the process of democratic reform, their stance from political

parties. This is due to the limited experience of municipal elections and the limited

number of opposition and independent candidates in such elections. However, this

does not jeopardize the fact that some of the main results of the study can be beneficial

for future projects, most importantly, the absence of the concept of an election

program in municipal elections, the incapability of voters to understand the

dimensions of the municipal system and the importance of the role of the media inraising the awareness of municipal issues.

4.

The questionnaire and thus the study did not include the opinion of voters regardingthe election committees so as to its organization, cleanness and facilities, which

represents in itself a main element of attracting voters and getting to know their

preferences. This is due to the desire to focus on vital issues related to the safety of theelectoral process such as the phosphoric ink, the interference of electoral brokers and

representatives to influence voters inside poll centers, the existence of a curtain behindwhich the voter casts his/her vote and voting inside a glass ballot. These issues

represented the main focus of this study, however, there are other important issues

related to the organization and cleanness of poll centers, which should occupy a

position of importance in future studies. There might be certain financial and practical

restrictions related to the organization of electoral committees, given the fact that thereis a large dependency on the use of schools, which suffer from poor facilities in

impoverished areas. However, measuring the opinion of voters shall remain necessary

in this regard, upon which detailed projects can be suggested regarding the

development of electoral committees and modernizing the electoral process such as

the use of e-mail.

5.The experience faced some challenges due to the lack of awareness of the voter. Thisresulted in non-cooperative attitude on behalf of voters. This is again due to the

novelty of the experience locally and regionally. This can only be solved by

continuing to depend on this method in monitoring election in the future.


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Final Results

Firstly:the target sample represented 19 governorates with the rate of 73 % of Egyptiangovernorates, in addition to its gender diversity (male Vs female) and age difference(

youth-elderly) aiming at reaching an objective point of view of municipal elections

explaining reasons of low participation, vote tendencies, degree of awareness of laws

and regulations regulating the electoral process.

Cairo came in the first place as to the interest of voters in cooperating with researchers,

number of Cairo samples reached 1690 samples amounting to 20.1% out of the total

number of research surveys and that is a natural matter in the light of the increased

number of voters and electoral districts in Cairo and the degree of awareness, whichrendered caireens more cooperative and keen on giving their opinions and point of views

regarding what is happening in their surrounding community, especially that our society

is going through circumstances, which necessitates participation.

Dakhliyah governorate came in the second place, which represents the governorates of

Lower Egypt that experiences a state of political competition between social forces and

movements. Dakhliyah represents a model of political conflict amidst a huge eagerness

from candidates for participation in all elections. This eagerness guaranteed the

representation of all political forces and tendencies and enforces the development of

electoral awareness of citizens, whose numbers reached 789 in the samples amounting to

9.4 % . It is possible for us to review the previous increased rate in addition to the large

number of districts and municipal levels as opposed to other major governorates, where

elections have been determined through consent, which in turn led to the decrease of

participation rates and number of samples such as Alexandria (4.7 %), Mounoufiya (2.3

%), Damietta (3.5 %) and Giza (6.7 %).

While the least governorate so as to the rates of participation was the governorate of

Kafr El- Sheikh, where the number of participants in the survey reached 189 amounting

to 2.2 %. This is can be explained by determining a number of electoral districts byconsent. Also, the state of fear prevailing between the citizens of Al-Mounoufiya due to

the behavior of the executive authorities during elections, especially, security

authorities. This can be measured by the state of hesitation and refusal to participate in

the vote and to cooperate with our researchers. Number of samples from Al-Mounoufiya

reached 87 samples amounting to 24.8 % out of the total number of surveys.

Regarding the average age of voters and measuring their point of views, bearing in mind

the communal needs, the degree of belief in the different methods and means of change


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and the feeling of citizens towards the effect of their participation. It is worth noting that

the average age of voters influences their decisions.

The age category of 30-39 scored the first place, with the percentage of 38.7 %, since

such voters are the more prone to be influenced with their mind rather than their

feelings. This age category is more interested in improving their living conditions and in

participating in their municipal councils and thus they are keen on participating in the

vote.

As for the age category of 18-29, which is beginning to be transformed into an important

force, which must not be underestimated, especially with the amendment of the Law of

exercising political rights? The law rendered those born in 1984 and afterwardsautomatically registered in electoral schedules according to the place of birth or the

desire of the voter. This rendered this age category influential in the elections and thus

must be convinced with the electoral party seeking to achieve its electoral platform.

The percentage of youth belonging to this category reached 21.2%, which is a very

reasonable percentage, compared to voters who are distrustful of the electoral process. It

is worth noting the feelings of alienation suffered by this age category, which usually

leads them to think of immigration, whether legal or illegal through illegal channels,

which are recently on the rise.

In spite of the average number of voters belonging to this age group, the boldness and

sharpness in expressing their point of views compensated for their average number. This

was considered as addition to the study as it helped in proposing new suggestions and

point of views for dealing with the violations and negatives, which are usually reported

in Egyptian elections.

On the gender level, the number of male voters, who have participated in the survey

6182 with a percentage 73.4 % and this is a large percentage matching the nature of the

Egyptian society, which is living a state of gender discrimination for the favor of malesaccording to traditions and customs, especially in Upper Egypt.. This discrimination

grants males skills and experiences not available for females. This led to the reality that

it is rare to find women candidates in elections. Also, this led to the appearance of

appointment for women in the different electoral levels. The percentage of women in the

sample reached 26.6% , that is 2240 voters.

Secondly:The ministerial decree of the Minister of Interior No.359/2008 was issued to

state for the legal regulations regulating the election campaign process in the general


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elections for municipal councils. The decree defined an expense ceiling of EGP 20,000

to be spent according to regulations and criteria, which can not be violated.

Such regulations are considered to be a good model for decisions regulating the general

elections in Egypt, specially that the decree includes an authorization for policemen to

take all required legal procedures for regulating the electoral process among candidates

in addition to creating the proper atmosphere for legal competition among them.

However, the reality indicates a lack of interest in executing the decree and its rules, for

instance, the Muslim Brotherhood used a religious symbol in its electoral campaign,

nevertheless, the security authorities didnt use its authorization against these violation.

Let alone the general elections which witnesses a flow of different forms of

campaigning, municipal election witnessed a limited flow of election campaigns, since

districts are smaller in size and there is a bigger chance of direct interaction between

candidates and voters.

Although the law regulates placing signs and advertisements infront of poll centers on

the election day, some election committees witnessed many violations, with varying

percentages in different governorates according to the nature of competition and the

influence of candidates. There were indications in some samples of 100 % violations in

governorates like Aswan, Port Said and Kafr El-Sheikh, while there were indications of

96 % violations in Cairo especially in districts of Kasr El-Nil and Dar Al-Salam.

While the least places in violating rules of election campaigns, surrounding committees

were in Al-Menya governorate 7.5 % and Qalubiyah governorate 28.8%. This can be

explained by the lack of competition in those governorates.

As for governorates, where the NDP dominated election campaigns around electoral

committees, Port Said came with 99.6 %, Aswan 99.5%, Suez 99% and Kafr El-Sheikh

97.4% at the time where NDP election campaigns decreased in Mounfouyia 23.5%,Sharkiyah 19.7%, Menya 19.5%.Assiout 13.6% and Bani Suief 10.3%. These

percentages show the lack of a unified method in managing election campaigns and the

obligation of the executive power to support NDP party lists, regardless of the

possibility of losing a limited number of seats for opposition or independent candidates.

Election campaigns play a decisive role in securing the vote and success possibilities for

many candidates. As for independent candidates, their election campaigns concentrated

in governorates, which witnessed objections and strikes against the membership of the


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NDP, which led many NDP members to nominate themselves as independent

candidates.

The phenomenon of independent candidates caused a lot of fear for the NDP due to

losing seats won by independent candidates for the favor of the Muslim Brotherhood or

the opposition. This led the NDP to hold negotiations with some independent candidates

to convince them of returning back or joining the NDP.

The highest percentage of election campaigns for independent candidates were in Menya

71.4%, Giza 61%, and Gharbiyah 60.2% and Assiout 59%.

It is rather strange that all candidates place election propaganda outside electoralcommittees despite being against the law, without confessing it is violating the law. On

the other hand, most non-NDP candidates always complain of NDP violation of the law.

This obviously requires a review of the existing political address of most existing

political forces in addition to empowering the Law on the exercise of political rights.

Thirdly: The religious element forms one of the main components of the Egyptian

personality. Thus, religion can play an important role in the lives of Egyptians and in

mobilizing them for or against any group inside or outside the country. It is worth

mentioning that religious symbols in election propaganda were a controversial issue.

The Egyptian government has allowed for such symbols for some time as an attempt to

create a unified vision for all citizens, until proponents of religious symbols took up

arms, for instance, Hassan Al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, which

played and still plays a vital role in modern Egyptian political life.

Since the first instance of founding the Muslim Brotherhood, it closely related itself with

the religious slogan, thus, using it to reach its goal and became a controversial political

group competing with other forces refusing to mix religion with politics and promotes a

civil society, built on citizenship and religious freedom granted by the Egyptian

Constitution.

With the huge success achieved by the Muslim Brotherhood as they won 88 seats in the

Peoples' Assembly. The battle of using religious symbols in the elections moved from

the political scene to electoral violation regarding the slogan" Islam is the Solution",

raised by the Muslim Brotherhood and its influence on electoral competition or in the

case on non-Muslim candidates and voters.

Given the ruling issued by the Supreme Administrative Court not considering slogans

used by the Muslim Brothers as slogans violating the law, tension increased and the


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creation of legal texts rendering the court ruling as unconstitutional, until article 5 of the

Egyptian Constitution was amended to state for, "It is not permissible to exercise any

political activity or to form political parties with a religious reference or background."Afterwards, the Supreme Elections Committee issued its decree No.5/2007 stating for

the regulation regaling electoral propaganda, which included article 2 stating for abiding

by the national unity and a ban on the use of any religious symbols in election

campaigns. Furthermore, the Ministry of Interior issued its decree No. 359/2008

regarding the legal regulations regulating the electoral process, which stated for the

same text stated for in decree No.5/2007. This represented a legislative framework

refusing the use of the religious slogan.

Thus, the rate of using a religious slogan decreased in most electoral propaganda, forinstance, the religious slogan disappeared completely in Aswan, while its rates ranged

from 97.3% in Kafr El-Sheikh, 97.2% in Port Said, 95% in Suez and 93% in Cairo.

There is another reason explaining the decrease in the use of the religious symbol, other

than the legislative framework, which is the lack of a unified aim or objective behind the

religious slogan used, to the extend that some voters think that the use of a religious

slogan became a must to make use of the influence it has on the vote.

Despite the several attempts of the Muslim Brothers to pressurize the executive power in

order to change its attitude towards the Muslim Brotherhood , either through filing court

cases, which reached 3912 case, in order to enable their candidates to be enlisted in

election lists or through the use of strikes and riots. In Dakhliyah, more than 25 thousand

individuals went on strike. However, this did not put an end to the challenges faced the

Muslim Brothers and they finally decide to withdraw from the elections.

Fourthly: Prior to the municipal elections, there was a lot of talk about supporting the

participation of women and guaranteeing women representation in parliamentary

councils through elections rather than appointment, which matches the constitutional

amendment of article 62 stating for," the elections shall be held according to theelectoral system determined by the law, so as to grant the representation of political

parties and enable the representation of women in both houses and it is permissible for

the law to use the a single party vote or a party list system with any percentage, also the

system shall include a minimum representation of women in both houses". NDP officials

stressed the fact that party lists shall include a 5% allocated for women.

At the same time, the National Council for Women called for women participation in

elections and asked political parties to include women in their party lists. Furthermore,

the Council announced that it shall hold meetings with party heads to guarantee the

success of the idea, in addition to the preparation of development and qualification


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programs to train female candidates in order to guarantee a positive participation of

women.

Elections results were good in this regard, as the NDP presented nearly 3000 women

candidates, despite the existence of minor cases of violation such as the case of Dr.

Hanan Al-Hwairi, who was a candidate for Aswan and was excluded. Dr. Hwairi went

on strike, along with 6 members from the Peoples' Assembly and the Shura Council.

The NDP remains the best party so as to the participation of women, compared with the

Wafd party which had only 24 women candidates out of 508 candidates amounting to

4.7%, Al-Tagmu party had 16 women candidates out of 243 candidates amounting to

6.8%, while data from other parties regarding women candidates were not available. TheDemocratic Front Party did not have any women candidates in the municipal elections.

The above results were reflected on the degree of awareness of voters regarding the

participation of women in the elections. Most voters were not able, when questioned, to

define the number of women candidates in municipal elections. 94.5 % from Suez

indicated the absence of women, 68% from Port Said, 50.4% from Qalubiyah, 40.4%

from Kafr El-Sheikh and 39.4% from Cairo indicated the same thing.

Those who indicated that only one-woman candidate was nominated were 70.6% from

Dakhliyah, 68.4% from Al-Mounoufiya,63.2% from Damietta, and 51.5% from

Gharbiyah. Those who indicated that there were three women candidates were 74.4%

from Alexandria, and 22.2% from Qena.

The obvious difference in data reflects the high degree of unawareness of the

representation of women in municipal elections, in addition to the absence of a female

model, which can attract voters through her personality and platform. Most NDP women

candidates depended heavily on being in the official party lists and thus did not do any

election propaganda.

Despite the above, voters maintain very positive views regarding the participation of

women in the elections.66.4% of the researched sample indicated their acceptance of

women participation in the elections on equal footage with men. This can be taken as a

sign of mental maturity and the collapse of restrictions, which traditionally refused the

participation of women in political life. While the percentage of those refusing the

participation of women reached 15.5% males and 13.7% females.

This positive view was reflected in the success of 2621 women candidates amounting to

4.4%, with 7 women candidates from Tagamu and 9 from Al-Wafd Party, despite the


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weakness of this percentage if compared to the total number of seats in municipal

councils, nearly 52 thousand seats.

There remains a huge effort to be exerted to build on what has been achieved. There

needs to be a huge effort to continue to present effective and influential women

candidates in the elections, so that it can affect and shift the voters' trend towards more

women candidates and thus securing the representation of women.

Fifthly: The phenomenon of buying votes represented an important dimension of the

Peoples' Assembly's elections 2005. The competition process appeared as an economic

market, where voters get the price for their vote. This phenomenon becomes widespread

through social and personal services, including either a direct financial element or anindirect gifts and commodities element.

We can attempt to understand this phenomenon through the fact that voters from the

middle class, which should represent the majority of the vote, are no longer interested in

casting their vote, this led to the shrinking of the role of that class of voters, leaving the

vote for poorer voters, whose survival needs forces them to barter their votes with a

return, either financial or non-financial.

There is a consensus that electoral bribes represent that way to corrupting the elections

and interfering in its results. All political forces called for confronting the danger of

bribery on social values (social-political-economic) and putting legal regulations in

order to have the best results out of the electoral process.

All legal regulations regulating the election process, whether the decree No.5/2007 or

359/2008, prohibit candidates from receiving any external funds to spend on their

election campaigns or to give it to voters.

In the light of the above regulations, we find out that there is a considerable decrease in

bribery in municipal elections, since 62.3% of the researched sample indicated theabsence of the phenomenon in the current elections, where 50 % from Sharkiyah, 49.3%

from Qena, 46.6% from Sohag, and 46.3% from Monoufiya indicated that bribery still

exists in elections.

Those who have indicated that they have met an elections broker in person are 72 %

from Alexandria, 60 % from Cairo, 57.5% from Sohag and 51.9% from Qalubiyah, at

the same time, the percentage who have indicated that they have not witnessed

brokerage or bribery in the elections are 62.3%. There was a percentage 49.8%, which

assumed the existence of bribery from their experiences in previous elections.


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As for the instances, where voters were being tempted with gifts or commodities, 67.3%

from the researched sample indicated the absence of this phenomenon, where 100 % inAswan,98.9% in Kafr El-Sheikh, 98.6% in Port Said and 98.5% in Suez. While 14.1%

indicated the existence of tangible bribes, especially 29 % in Sohag, 27.5 % in

Gharbiyah, 26.5% in Sharkiyah and 25.5% in Qena.

The phenomenon of tangible bribery can be explained through the widespread of

shantytowns around cities, where poverty is abundant and people are mostly needy and

unable to secure their basic needs. In addition to the fact that the race in municipal

elections is not between two candidates, however, between more than 25 candidates,

which increases the tension of competition and forces candidates to spend more onpropaganda and buying votes.

Sixthly:The security attitude represents one of the most important criteria for measuring

the degree of transparency and neutrality of the electoral process and the degree of

compliance with laws and regulations regulating the process. This also has the effect of

influencing the acceptance of voters and candidates of the effect of their participation in

the process.

Building on the above, the legislature took great care to draw among the roles of the

security organization, the role of monitoring election campaigns and propaganda, in

addition to protecting and securing the external environment of election committees for

candidates and administrative staff as well. In cases where police officers have to enter

into election committee, the law obliges them to immediately leave the committee after

carrying out their tasks.

83.4% of the researched sample indicated the intense security presence inside election

committees, where 100 % in Aswan,97.5% in Port Said, 96.5% in Suez,95.9% in

Menya,95.2 % in Kafr El-Sheikh and 93.2% in Cairo . These are governorates

characterized by the intense competition between opposition and NDP candidates.

16.6% indicated the absence of the security presence inside election committees, where

33.8% from Sharkiyah, 28.3% from Assiout, 27.9% from Gharbiyah and 25.3% from

Behairah. It is worth mentioning that such reported absence is rather misleading, as in

cases of relative calmness, security forces mingle among the masses and it becomes

difficult for the ordinary voter to identify them.

The problem does not lie in the presence of security forces around election committees,

however, the problem lies in not performing their tasks as good as they are supposed to.


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The crisis usually begins when security forces interfere because they are biased towards

one side against the other.87 % of the researched sample indicated the absence of any

problems facing them when they went to caste their vote, while 13% indicated that theyfaced problems with security forces when they went to caste their votes. It is safe to

ague that security interference did not turn into a phenomenon.

It is also worth mentioning that the interference of security does not usually take place

on the election day, but prior to that day, where security forces filters the process either

through being rigid with candidates while presenting their papers or through arresting

some candidates. These actions made political parties more reserved to participate and

several political parties threatened to withdraw their candidates from the election if

security forces continue to hinder their participation such as the case of the Wafdcandidates in Mounfiyah. However, such cases are still limited and can not be

considered as a general phenomenon.

Seventhly: The phenomenon of group transportation of voters represents one of the

most important tools that guarantees having the votes of those transported by the

candidate to committees. The weak participation rates contributed to the appearance of

this phenomenon, which did not exceed 30 % at best out of the total number of

registered Egyptian voters. Thus, the candidate who is able to gather and transport a

large number of voters has a better chance of winning, let alone, if those gathered voters

fall under his control such as being members of his clan or residents of his home town.

It is safe to argue that the municipal elections witnessed a decrease of this phenomenon,

despite its continuation; however, it was not that flagrant as it was the case in the

Parliamentary elections. 57.7 % of the researched sample indicated the absence of group

transportation of voters, where 98.9% in Kafr El-Sheikh, 96.6 % in Port Said, and 96.6

% in Suez. As for those who indicated the presence of group transportation were 23.7%

concentrated as 55.8% in Sohag,53.5% in Qena,32.7% in Beheria,32.1 % in

Monufiya,31.6% in Damietta and 37.6% in Gharbiyah, while 18.6 % did not take notice

of the occurrence of the phenomenon.

The above shows that the phenomenon did not transform into a dimension of

competition between candidates to win more votes. There is another explanation for the

decrease of the phenomenon, which is the geographical nature of municipal electoral

districts. Municipal electoral districts are divided into smaller, which do not require a

means of transportation to reach. In addition to the fact that most supporters of a

candidate in municipal elections are members either of his clan or his hometown, i.e.the

candidate enjoys very strong relationships with his supporters and thus does not need a

group transportation to secure their vote.


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Eighthly:Polling centers are considered an integral part of the electoral process, where

only administrative staff must be present inside those centers to supervise and administer

the process of casting votes. It is worth nothing that the law prohibits citizens from beingpresent inside polling centers after casting their votes. The law also prohibits candidates

and their supporters from any campaigns or propaganda inside polling centers aiming at

influencing or convincing voters. In this regard, the law grants the head of the election

committee the authority of a judicial officer and obliging police officers of securing the

committee in order to guarantee the transparency and accountability of the electoral

process.

More than half the researched sample, 51 % indicated the absence of election

propaganda inside polling centers especially, 100% in Aswan, 99.5% in Kafr El-Sheikh,99% in Suez, 98.9% in Port Said, while 39.1% indicated the presence of propaganda

inside electoral committees, without the interference of policemen, despite their

knowledge, especially in governorates such as Damietta 91.9%,Bani Suief 80.9%,

Sharkiyah 69.4% and Assiout 16.6%, while 9.9% abstained from giving any data in this

regard.

If we attempted to identify the political identity of the violating propaganda, we find out

that it comes from almost all political trends, whether NDP 33.5% or Opposition parties

24% or independent candidates 13.5% or other candidates 29%.

Ninthly: Several political parties and members of the political elite have been

demanding over the past decades the necessity of reviewing the procedures and steps of

the voting process in order to reach the sufficient accuracy and transparency and to

eliminate the subsequent violations in each elections, bearing in mind that many of these

violations are cited in the various court cases filed in front of Egyptian courts.

The administrative competent entity began -since the Peoples Assembly elections of

2000- to respond to the above demands and started implementing various steps such as

the existence of a curtain behind which the voter castes his/her vote, the use of atransparent box for collecting votes, the use of phosphoric ink to guarantee that each

voter castes his/her vote once and only once and hanging electoral schedules so that

voters can know their numbers before casting their votes.

Voters from the researched sample indicated, upon the implementation of the above

steps- that procedures followed are quiet safe and smooth in the different dimensions of

the electoral process except for some minor cases. On the other hand, there are various

indications on the low rate of participation, 28.4% indicated that they found the polling

center empty, 39.3% indicated that less than 5 voters were present, 23.8% indicated that

less than 10 voters were present while 8.5% indicated that not more than 15 voters were


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present. These indicators show the weak keenness of voters to participate, where voting

rates ranged between 4%-10% out of the total number of registered voters.

Researched voters also indicated the duration of casting the vote, 53.6% indicated that

the voting process took half an hour, 10.1%indicated that the voting process took an

hour, 5.9% indicated that the voting process took more than an hour and 30.5%

indicated that they are unable of defining the duration of the voting process. These

voting durations are considered ideal, bearing in mind the nature of the Egyptian

personality, which considers the voting event as a socialization event as well.

As for electoral lists and name search, 85.3% indicated that they did not find any

difficulty in finding their names and reaching the right voting places, especially inAswan 99%, Suez 98.5%, Port Said 98.5%, Kafr El-Sheikh 97.9% and Cairo

96.6%.14.6% of the researched sample indicated that they found difficulties in finding

their names and reaching the right voting places especially in Gharbiyah 28.6%,

Damietta 28%, Monofiyah 23.8% and Behaira 23.6%.

The above results seem a bit strange in the light of the various complaints of errors in

registered names, repeated names, group registration and the fact that electoral lists are

not yet edited to exclude names of deceased or those banned from practicing their

political rights. There were suggestions to have registration through the national ID,

which is a unique number for each voter instead of the existing system, which facilitates

such errors. The above results can be due to the fact that researched sample was not

representative of those who are still in the process of casting their votes or those who

have not at all.

As for the presence of candidates representatives inside polling centers, 73.8%

indicated their presence especially in governorates of Aswan 99.5% and Kafr El-Sheikh

98.9%, while 14.2% indicated their absence especially in Menya, where 55.5% indicated

that they have not seen any representatives of candidates inside polling centers.

Regarding the attitude of representatives of candidates, which might have a negative

impact on the voter, 69.8% of the researched sample indicated that representatives

committed violations, while 30.2% indicated that such representatives in polling centers

influenced them. Representatives belonged to various political trends such as 40.3%

belonged to the NDP, 23.2% belonged to opposition parties, 13% represented

independent candidates. This reveals that the process of influencing voters did not

follow a systematic trend and the higher percentage of representatives of NDP

candidates is due to the fact that they are the larger in terms of numbers.


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As for the existence of phosphoric ink inside polling centers in sufficient amounts

following reports that it is insufficient or rare, 88.9% indicated its availability, while

8.7% indicated its absence in polling centers. Thus, when questioning voters whetherstaff at polling centers insisted that voters use phosphoric ink, 85.6% indicated that they

did while 14.4% indicated that they did not.

As for the secrecy of the voting process behind a curtain where the voter castes his/her

vote, most of the researched sample indicated adherence to this procedure, 86.8%

indicated the presence of a curtain in polling centers, while 13.2% indicated the absence

of a curtain and their inability to vote behind it. It is worth noting that the issue of the

secrecy of the vote has to be tackled in the light of prevalent cultural and social norms,

for instance, in the countryside, voting behind a curtain is considered as being scared ofother candidates and their supporters.

As for the issue of the presence of certain individuals besides voters while casting their

votes, 64% of the researched sample indicated that it happens, while 36 % indicated that

it does not happen. This can happen either because the voter does not know how to caste

his/her vote and thus requires someone to assist him/her or because the voter is under the

influence of the supporters of a particular candidate and thus, the candidates supporter

want to secure the vote for that particular candidate.

Lastly, 88.5% of the researched sample indicated that they have placed voting cards

inside the glass voting boxes, especially in Port Said 98.9%,Suez 96.2% and Bani Sueif

95.2%, while 11.5% indicated that when they did not place voting cards inside glass

voting boxes especially in Aswan 22.5% and Sohag 24.8% for reasons such as the

insufficiency of voting boxes or lack of awareness on behalf of voters.

To sum up, we can maintain that the procedures for regulating the electoral process in

municipal elections did not witness any intentional violations, only due to lack of

awareness or insufficiency of regulations tools used. There is also another explanation

which is worth citing and that is the fact that the results of the municipal elections weredetermined beforehand and that required interference to change any of the results were

done through the accumulated experience of security entities without having to agitate

voters or the media.

Tenthly: The municipal electoral system is considered to be the most complicated

among the other forms of political participation regulated by the Egyptian law. The voter

in various elections has to choose one candidate as it is the case in presidential elections

or two candidates as it is the case in parliamentary elections, with at least one worker or

peasant among both. Thus, it is very easy for voters to recognize candidates, compared


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to municipal elections, where the number of candidates is much larger and it becomes

difficult for voters to distinguish between them.

Voters in municipal elections have to choose between 10- 14 candidates for themunicipal council of the governorate, then 10-14 candidates for the municipal council of

the town then 14-24 candidates for the municipal council of the city then 12-18

candidates for the municipal council of the suburb and then 24 candidates for the

municipal council of the village, which is a large number of candidates and it becomes

very difficult for voters to choose the best candidates.

When questioning members of the researched sample if they can distinguish between

municipal candidates, 57.4% indicated that they previously know some candidates,

28.1% indicated that they only know some candidates and not all of them, while 14.5%indicated that they previously know all candidates.

The issue of the voters knowledge of candidates opens the door for discussing several

problems of political and social reform in Egypt. Political practices are supposed to

allow for a distinction between candidates and their ideas. The ability to distinguish

candidates is one of the objective criteria of the voting process. This criterion is very

difficult to achieve in the light of the existing voting system, which leads at the end to

the absence of a methodology and the ability to make the best choice among competing

candidates.

When questioning candidates about the reasons of choosing a certain candidate, 35.1%

indicated that they previously know the candidate, 8.7% chose the candidate based on

previous achievements, 25.4% chose candidates because they were nominated by the

NDP and 3.3% chose candidates because of their finical support to voters.

It is very obvious from the above the process of political participation is passing through

a crisis in the light of the absence of political awareness and an identified goal. Voters

who give their votes to candidates not knowing why they did so or to what degree does

this candidate represent their interests and needs is considered a step back in the processof political reform. To the majority of Egyptian voters, elections are the chance to

realize the gains and services, not secured by the government and thus their affiliation to

parties or their candidates becomes an alternative to their citizenship.

Eleventh:It is safe to argue that there can be neither elections nor candidates without

voters who are able to side with one candidate against the other and prefer one candidate

to the rest. There is no doubt that the problem of political participation is one of the

problems creating a crisis for the process of political reform and democratic

development. It became obvious that the poor and marginalized became the category


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having the upper hand in participation in order to secure their basic needs in return for

their votes and thus created attitudes which are in themselves a violation of the rules of

political participation, as opposed to the upper and middle class which has the upper hadin elections prior to banning political pluralism in 1953.

As for the rates of participation, it is still very low, where the total participation rate in

the three rounds of elections (presidential 2005-Peoples Assembly 2008-Shura Council

2007) did not exceed 27 % according to official statistics. Municipal elections were no

exception where participation rates did not exceed 25 % at best.

The results of the study show that those who have participated in the elections more than

once is 44.2%, while 29 % indicated that they participated for the first time. The state offear, which dominated the society following the 6th of April events, contributed to the

low participation rate. The fact remains that the political platform requires a review in

order to be able to reach the new generation, which grew up in the presence of different

means of communication and has access to more data.

In addition to the fact that there is a necessity for supporting the participation of young

generations to encourage them to go through the competition process. We also need to

find out ways of achieving a positive distinction in order to guarantee the appearance of

young calibers, which may motivate other youth to participate in the political scene.

Twelfth: Candidates platforms can be considered as the real test to judge their

capabilities so as to their knowledge of the problems of their electoral district and their

proposal of solutions to these problems. This is also supposed to a means of preference

for voters to decide on their choice of one candidate or the other. The failure of voters to

do so is considered as a problem of awareness, which has to be solved.

The results of the study at hand reveal the inability of voters to decide whether

candidates have viable platforms that are representative of the problems of their electoral

district or not since 36.9% of the researched sample indicated that candidates had anelectoral platform, while 38.8% indicated the absence of these platforms and 24.2%

abstained from answering.

There is no doubt that the crisis does not lie in voters who failed to identify electoral

platforms of their candidates, but the crisis lies in the first place in the political forces

participating in the elections and which thought that it is sufficient to hold conferences

and distribute flyers and brochures. Political parties underestimated the importance of

issuing a central electoral platform for each party candidate, expressing the vision of the

party and the role of municipal councils in the partys point of view. Only two political


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parties did so and they were the NDP and Tagamu in addition to the Muslim

Brotherhood prior to its withdrawal from municipal elections.

Thirteenth: The ministerial decree No.359/2008 regulated the process of electoralpropaganda and defined a ceiling for election spending to be EGP 20 000 for each

candidate. When questioning voters about their participation in the propaganda of

candidates, 61.1% of the researched sample indicated that they have participated in some

propaganda such as a seminar or a roundtable, while 38.9% indicated that they did not

participate in any sort of propaganda.

As for the sufficiency of propaganda, 31.9% of the researched sample indicated that

propaganda was sufficient, 35.6% indicated that it was close to sufficient and 14.5%

indicated that it was insufficient. This can be explained by the variation in propagandastrategy in municipal elections. Also, the high satisfaction degree among voters should

not be misleading as the researched sample is representative only of voters who have

voted already.

As for financial spending on propaganda, 34.1% indicated that spending was huge

especially in Port Said 61.8%, Kafr El-Sheikh 60.3% and Suez 60%, 21.5% indicated

that spending was normal especially in Qalubiyah 61.8%, Monfiyah 24.3% and Behairah

34.1% and 44.5% abstained from answering this question.

We have to bear in mind the difficulty of tracking and evaluating the financial spending

parameter, given the fact that the law did not mention the status of donations given to

voters internally and did not define a ceiling for its spending.

Fourteenth: Ignorance of the role of elected councils and the right of its members

represents one of the most important obstacles for the political reform process since the

lack of awareness among voters of the difference between the role of the member of

parliament and member of municipal councils, which lead to parliament losing many of

its important members. This brings up the issue of the importance of raising the

awareness of citizens regarding the roles of elected councils. The survey carried out bythe Centre for Information and Decision Making Support affiliated with the Cabinet of

Ministers that 48% of their sample (composed of 1000 Egyptian families) are aware of

the roles of elected councils, 24% of those aware participated in the elections, 66% are

only aware of some roles and 47% expressed that elected councils are not doing a good

job.

Results of the previous survey match the results of the study at hand since 79% of the

researched sample indicated that they are aware of the roles of municipal councils

especially in Port Said 100 %, Kafr El Sheikh 100 %, Suez 99%, Damietta 93%, while


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21% indicated that they do not have a clear idea of the role of municipal councils as it is

the case in Menya 64.2%. Alexandria 43.6% and Giza 35.6%.

As for the sources through which voters became aware of the roles of municipalcouncils, media came in the first place 39.9%, then election propaganda 32.1% then Law

on local governance 15.1% then discussion with local officials 11.8% then 1.1% for

other sources.

The fact remains that such knowledge and awareness is instant and is related to the

intensive focus of the media during the election, thus reflecting the absence of an

awareness methodology and a clear plan for achieving community awareness.

Fifteenth: The results of the researched sample showed a positive bias towards theparticipation of women, which means that the Egyptian society is becoming more

acceptable of choosing women as a representative element in elected councils.66.4% of

the researched sample indicated that they are ready to vote for women in municipal

elections, 18.6% indicated that voting for women depends on their ability to propose

new solutions to existing problems and 15 % indicated that it is impossible for them to

vote for women.

The final results of the municipal election came out to match the same results of the

study at hand as the number of women in elected municipal councils reached 2621

women with an increase rate of 294% where Al Sharkiayh came in the first place with

328 women, Dakliyah with 304 women, Al- Behairah with 268 women, Qaliubiyah with

181 women, North Sinai with 175 women, Al-Monoufiyh with 142 women,Giza with

113 women,Kafr El-Sheikh with 111 women,Cairo with 99 women,Al-Wadi Al Gedid

with 94 women,Gharbiyah with 88 women,Menya with 85 women,Beni Suief with 83

women,Damietta with 74 women,Assiout with 64 women,Ismailiyah with 59

women,Fayoum with 57 women, Aswan with 53 women,Alexanderia with 36 women,

Sohag with 35 women, Matrouh with 32 women, Qena with 29 women, Sinai with 27

women, Luxor with 23 women, Suez with 16 women and Red Sea with 14 women.

The study at hand also showed that the positive bias towards women is restricted to a

certain age group, as there was not any difference between voters from different age

groups, furthermore, support percentages ranged between 57% and 67%.

The fact that the gender variable did not have any impact on the bias towards women

since percentages was equal among those who accepted and those who refused the

participation of women from both genders.

Sixteenth: Results of the study at hand revealed that most of the researched sample

belonged to political parties that are recognized legally, who amounted to 68.7% out of


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the total number of voters in the sample, especially in Port Said 100%, Kafr El-Sheikh

100%, Suez 97.5% and Cairo 91%.While those voters who do not belong to political

parties amounted to 31.3% specially in Alexandria 58.6%,Damietta 52.9%, Qalubiyah49.6% and Qena 46.6%.

These results show the real crisis of political life in Egypt. If political parties continue to

be that weak, they will continue to fail to attract new members and the rate of

participation will not increase due to limited membership.

Reality says that those political parties especially opposition parties have been suffering

from the domination of the elite in party mechanisms and decision making which

created a gap between these parties and the masses. It is worth mentioning that most

political parties have witnessed memberships, which soared very high when pluralismwas restored to Egypt and then members lost interest when it became obvious that

political parties are not effective. Thus, political parties were transformed from attractive

to repulsive entities.

Furthermore, voters not affiliated with any political party explain that the reason is due

to the fact that political parties do not have the least degree of influence in addition to its

repulsiveness to the younger generations. Looking at the real picture, it is safe to argue

that all the above is a repetition of the painful reality suffered by political parties since a

long time.

The municipal elections were a revealing model of the crisis of Egyptian political

parties, which failed except for the NDP to cover all electoral districts, despite the

declaration of opposition parties of the necessity of a peaceful transfer of power in a

transparent and accountable electoral process, for instance, the Wafd offered 507

candidates, the Tagmu offered 236 candidates, the Nasserite party offered 170

candidates and the front offered 16 candidates. In other words, municipal elections

which require 25 000 candidates had less than 1000 opposition candidates leaving 51

000 seats for the NDP and independent candidates. The huge variation in numbers is a

clear evidence on the crisis suffered by Egyptian political parties.

The crisis did not stop at the above point, but went further to reach the internal reality of

political parties, where political alliance turned against one another immediately after

the elections like what happened with the Nasserite coalition when the Nasserite party

exchanged accusations of striking deals with the NDP to win seats in the elections.

As for the Wafd party, various conflicts erupted regarding its membership of the

municipal council of Fayoum, where various accusations were exchanged of adopting

the thought of the Muslim Brotherhood and making the way for them under the banner

of Wafd party.


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Needless to say that subsequent crises of Egyptian political parties is the major obstacle

facing any reform or development in the light of the repulsiveness of citizens towards

political participation. Thus, necessity implies developing political parties in order toserve as an attractive element for citizens presenting qualified candidates and calibers

capable of political competition.

Seventeenth: The municipal elections inspite of its limited electoral districts,

represented a good model of participation aspired by the Egyptian citizen, in the light of

decreased violations and interferences. 75.1 % of the researched sample indicated that

they desire that the voting process to be repeated in the future especially in Port Said

99.6%, Kafr El- Sheikh 99.5%, Aswan 99% and Suez 99%. 6.2% indicated their refusal

to repeat the voting process again.

As for the gender dimension, 75.6% of males and 73.8% of females indicated their

keenness on repeating the voting experience, while 6.4% of males and 5.7% of females

indicated their refusal of repeating the voting experience in the future. This can be taken

as a good indicator on the development of the voter's trust in the influence of

participation.

Concluding Recommendations: An Invitation to Think with the VoterThe use of the method of knowing the opinion of the voter in the electoral process

represents a different path and initiative in evaluating and monitoring elections, and

since the study is based on using this method usually does not end with

recommendations, but usually ends with ideas for future implementation, as recording

recommendations shall not benefit governmental or non-governmental entities. Also,

since the study at hand is based on a survey, an outlining of a work plan in the future

becomes very important, in order to deepen the participation of citizens in public affairs

and develop the political life on the basis of voters preferences. From this point

onwards, thinking with the voter gets to have a special importance, notwithstanding, the

fact that the experience is still very recent, but regarding its long-term effects, which

influence the reality of political development.

It is possible to propose a number of ideas suitable for a future work plan, in the light of

the results of the study at hand as follows:

1. Raising the awareness of voters of the importance of the electoral platform in the

field of elections in general and municipal ones in particular. This represents a

field for future work as it is possible to train voters, raise their organizational and

knowledge abilities in order to enable them to better understand the electoral

system in a political context, without having to surrender to tribal or family ties.


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2.

Raising the awareness of voters of the municipal system such as its structure,

dimensions, roles and importance. This shall help in increasing the rate of

participation in municipal elections. It is very important to train voters on how tounderstand and analyze electoral programs and participate in discussion forums

on elections as all this shall help in building a better political awareness, which

enables voters of choosing the best candidates and face negative aspects of the

elections such as buying votes or bribery....etc.

3. Raising the awareness of voters of certain qualitative issues and matter of public

concern in municipal elections such the issue of the participation of women, youth

problems. There is no doubt that interest in such matters enriches the awareness of

voters and clarifies their preferences.

4.

Raising the awareness of voters of the importance of having a civil state and thenecessity of eliminating religious slogans and symbols from the electoral process

such as the Muslim Brothers slogan of Islam is the solution. It is worth

mentioning that some NDP candidates used certain Quaranic verses and sayings

of the Prophet in their banners and propaganda, which is also considered an

obvious violation of the law.

5.

Working on developing electoral committees, which a direct requires the

knowledge of voters preferences. Future surveys in future elections must include

questions about electoral committees and means of developing them.

6.

Knowledge of voters electoral preferences, which is rather a controversial issue

as it is directly related to the partys view or the voters political views. However,

this represents an important issue for political trends and can be an important part

of political programs and electoral platforms. It is worth noting that the political

opinions of voters are an integral part of developing democratic life and political

parties. The ability of political parties to influence the preferences of voters in an

indicator on their political capability and their degree of closeness to the masses.

Thus, problems of voters and their major concerns must be the main basis for

electoral programs and platforms.

7. The study at hand revealed the importance of electoral propaganda, thus a future

work plan can be focused on the content of electoral propaganda, the degree of itsattractiveness to voters, the criteria for the quality of propaganda, its regulations

and laws and means of developing existing methods of electoral propaganda as it

is one of the means of raising the awareness of voters.

8. The media as it has been revealed by the study at hand is the main source of

knowledge for voters, thus a future work plan can to intensify programs on

electoral awareness clarifying the roles of municipal and parliamentary councils

especially during the season of the elections and that can be regarded as a seasonal

role for the media. The future work plan may also include criteria for evaluating

the performance of the media during times of elections.


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9.

We can not talk about political reform without developing political parties and the

roles they play among the masses. The study at hand revealed that the majority of

political parties are suffering from a gap existing with the masses, stagnation, adecrease in their membership and the domination of seniors on leadership

positions leaving no room for the younger generation. Thus, a future work plan

can be the means of building new calibers among the younger generation

qualified of removing the stagnation currently prevailing in political parties, and

raising the awareness of the younger generation of controversial issues in order to

enable them to contribute with new solutions.

10.

The study at hand revealed the emergence of a new societal and knowledge

variable that has to do with the participation of women in political life and the

possibility of voting for women in elections. It is worth noting that theconstitutional amendment, which called for ending the discrimination against

women, is not enough, however, it is important to include in future work plans

training for calibers of women in order to qualify them for an effective political

participation and raising their awareness of important issues of public concern.


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First

Media Reports


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Maat Center Held a Training Course for Trainers.In the framework of Voter's Vote Project implemented by Maat Center for Judicial and

Constitutional Studies and supported by (MEPI), the center ended the training course that

was held to train (21 trainers) who are chosen to participate in preparing observation

squads, which are prepared for the local elections in 8\4\2008.

Voter's Vote Project aimed at watching election committees in ninety-four election districts

distributed in 21 governorates through 940 civil observers and 94 coordinators.

Maat Center for Judicial and Constitutional Studies implements this observation project in

the framework of a philosophy adopted by the center to activate new forms of observation

in order to enhance voter's situation. Thus, the center estimates the election process, anddefines ways to develop it and to activate voter's participation in it by watching events and

violations through voter's eyes and voice. The voter's voice which is trying to read

objectively the real status in local elections and which support developing it and activating

forms of its decentralize during the coming period. This comes because of the center's view

to spread culture of participating, activate elections awareness, achieve fair representation

for social marginal sectors, and assert value of the culture of variety and accepting the

other.

Participants in the training course asserted the importance of observing local elections in

Egypt, as observation represents public guarantee to assert election process's integrity or toexpose its violations and trespasses. They also asserted its importance as in this round it is

so close to lately constitutional amendments, which asserted the role of local councils'

member in recommending and nominating president of the state, and in the framework of

supporting the decentralized state especially as it is expected to pass new draft for local

administration.

The course was ended after exhaustive discussion about the model of (voter's vote form)

that will be applied in the Election Day to insure the form's ability to express the voter

objectively and effectively.

22/3/2008 Cairo

Media report (2)

Maat Center starts

(The Voters' Voice Project) observers' training

Maat Center for Juridical and Constitutional Studies started today the 1stof April 2008 the

second training program for preparing and rehabilitee of observers of (the Voter's Voice

Project). The project aims at measuring the commitment of the executive authority in

implementing the electoral procedures and activities (in local council elections 2008)

according to the international regulations and standards of honesty and transparency inside


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a sample of 94 constituencies distributed over 21egyptian governorate by conducting 41

training program.

The 4/day training programs that will end on Friday the 4thof April 2008 will benefit 940field observers and 94 constituency coordinators, which is total teamwork Maat depends on

in achieving his targeted observation which symbolizes an unprecedented experience in

measuring the naturalness and the honesty of the electoral process.

The training program focuses on providing the voter with the required information to

realize the difference between the observation and the supervision and the difference

between the local and international observation of the election in addition to clarifying thelegal basics of and the purposes behind the observation process stressing on the basic rules

in the election observation and the important actions that should be done during the voting

process.

The training will explain samples of the application a form prepared to record the voters'

impressions towards the electoral process, the forms of violations and oversteps that may

happen, and determine the responsible for it, in addition to exploring practical cases to

show the ways emergency situation that may face them while reaching the voters should be

handled within the framework of the supporting the citizens' participation in public life.

The Voters' Voice Project is implemented by Maat Center for Juridical and Constitutional

Studies in cooperation with One World Foundation for Development and Civil Society Care

And Mansora based Human Devel

Documents

The Voter’s Voice Project - Final Report