A Predictable Vote

Egypt began voting in the country's first contested presidential election but veteran leader Husni Mubarak is widely expected to win a fifth term. Reem Nada reports from Cairo

Polls have opened in Egypt as the country contests its first presidential election with a choice of candidates.

Until now, Egyptians had only been able to say yes or no to a single candidate through a referendum and voters and officials alike were struggling to adjust to the multi-candidate poll.

No independent monitors for polling stations

But as the country wrapped up on Sunday its first election campaign ever, there are doubts over the fairness and transparency of the polls. On the same day Egypt's electoral commission said it will not allow independent monitors to enter the polling stations.

The government-appointed commission's decision to only allow presidential candidates and their representatives defies a court ruling issued only a day before. The head of the Arab Centre of the Independence of Judiciary, Nasser Amin, said they will sue the head of the commission demanding his dismissal and arrest:

"We have an independent judiciary here in Egypt that can stop this commission and expose its shameful decisions to national and international public opinion," Amin claims. "These are odd decisions and do not have any proper legal backing!"

Multi-candidate elections only in theory

To ensure fair vote, more than thirty NGO's have trained an estimated two thousand independent monitors to assist the judges in supervising the vote. Egypt has a notorious past of vote rigging and harassing opposition candidates during previous parliamentary elections.

Emad Gad, a political analyst at the state-run Al Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies says it's a charade election:

"It's obvious that these are multi-candidate elections only in theory but in practice everything has been prepared to guarantee the success of the National Democratic Party's candidate, President Mubarak. Egypt's main problem is the weak turnout at polling stations. All what's going on is perhaps to ensure claiming high turnout and to control the number of votes going to the NDP's candidate."

No real progress towards democracy

Two months ago in Cairo, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice welcomed Mr Mubarak’s efforts towards democratic reform but asked the Egyptian government to take measure to ensure transparent elections.
But Mr Mubarak who has ruled Egypt uncontested for the past twenty four years has ruled out any possibility of allowing international observers saying it violates Egypt's sovereignty.

Egypt's judges are saying they couldn't guarantee the transparency of the ballots without the assistance of independent monitors. They also demand that the Egyptian police should not interfere in any way in the electoral process.

NGO monitors say that these demands will never be met and they insist on entering the polling stations as Egyptian citizens, which could mean a confrontation with security forces.

Reem Nada

Qantara.de

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