Egyptian presidential election, 2005
Encyclopedia
The Egyptian presidential election of 2005, held on September 7, 2005, was the first allegedly contested presidential election in Egypt
's history. Hosni Mubarak
, the former
President of Egypt
, won a fifth consecutive six-year term in office, with official results showing he won 88.6% of the vote. Mubarak's opponent, Ayman Nour
, of the Tomorrow Party
, is estimated to have received 7.3% of the vote and Numan Gumaa
received 2.8%, however, Nur claimed that prior polling results showed over 30%. Criticism of the election process has cenetred on the process of selecting the eligible candidates, and on alleged election-law violations during voting. Mubarak was sworn in for his new term on September 27.
The election was the first-ever multi-party
election in the history of Hosni Mubarak's authoritarian rule. Ten parties were set to take part; the leading candidates were:
Also contending are:
have only been able to approve or reject a candidate appointed by parliament
, which is dominated by Hosni Mubarak's
NDP
.
Mubarak had been re-elected four times during his 24-year rule by such a referendum
. Mubarak won the 1999 referendum with almost 94% of the vote, though turnout was probably around 10%.
A constitutional amendment approved in a referendum in May 2005 opened the way for multi-candidate presidential elections.
, all Egyptians over age eighteen are required to vote. However, out of a population of approximately 77,500,000 (the largest in the Arab world), only about 32 million voters were registered (approximately 40% of the total population).
Under the election law, parties proposed candidates for the election, which were reviewed by the Presidential Election Commission. Of the 30 proposed candidates, only 10 were allowed to participate in the presidential election by the Presidential Election Commission. One prominent candidate not allowed to run was Talaat Sadat
, the nephew of former President Anwar Sadat
, who appealed his disqualification unsuccessfully.
Egypt's largest Islam
ic group, the Muslim Brotherhood
, was not permitted to field a candidate for the election because the organization is banned by the government, which prohibits political parties with a stated religious agenda. The Brotherhood has not backed any of the other candidates, but they encouraged Egyptians to go to the polls and vote for anyone other than Mubarak.
The election campaign kicked off on August 17, 2005 and lasted until September 4, 2005. While many believed Hosni Mubarak's re-election a foregone conclusion, he campaigned seriously, trying to win votes across Egypt.
9,865 polling places
were open until 10:00 p.m. Wednesday, September 7, so that voters could cast their ballots. Full results were not expected until at least Thursday September 8.
The election was overseen by Egyptian judges. No international monitors were allowed to oversee the election.
According to a late August report by the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, media coverage was biased in favour of Hosni Mubarak.
If no candidate had received 50% of the vote, the top two candidates would have contested a second election scheduled for September 17.
, saying it is unlikely to be free or fair. Those opposing the election say the electoral reforms have not gone far enough because the election regulations severely restrict independent candidates and overwhelmingly favour the NDP.
Secondly, the Muslim Brotherhood
, believed to be the most popular opposition group in Egypt, was excluded from running in the elections because Mubarak's government has made it officially illegal and barred from major political processes. Supporters of the Brotherhood and other opposition parties state that this undermines the credibility of the election.
In addition, there appeared to be official harassment of the leading opposition candidate Nour, who was stripped of his parliamentary immunity and arrested on January 2005, on what many observers regarded as trumped-up charges. He was imprisoned for a short time that year before public and international outcry resulted in his release before trial.
The New Wafd Party
and the Tomorrow (Ghad) Party
contested the election even though they had opposed the May 2005 constitutional referendum, and their respective candidates, Numan Gumaa
and Ayman Nour
, drew significant support -- Nour won 12% and Gumaa won 5-7%.
winning 78% - 80% of the vote and Ayman Nour
winning 12%. Gumaa was reported as receiving 5-7%.
Late reports from September 8 placed Mubarak's numbers at approximately 72%, based once again on anonymous sources.
The official result, that Mubarak won the election with 88.6% of the vote, was announced on September 9, 2005. Detailed results, with results and voting breakdowns by province for 15 of the 26 provinces (not including the largest provinces), were published in Al-Ahram, a state newspaper. The same source states that Nour won 6.2% in the 15 provinces, 20% in the Nile delta province of Buheira, and 16% in Alexandria.
Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal
stated that the elections show that Mubarak has democratic intentions and that elections can take place there without harming stability: "The poll that took place in Egypt refutes the case made by those who claim Egypt is unstable and question its march toward the future."
United States
State Department
spokesman Sean McCormack said that the United States saw this election as a "historic departure" and the debate during the election process would "enrich the Egyptian political dialogue, certainly for years to come." McCormack also stated that "the Egyptian security services showed discipline in ensuring safety and security" and praised the "relative calm" of Election Day.
However, McCormack criticized the lack of international monitors and the late decision to allow monitors, as well as the lack of media access that prevented opposition candidates from getting their message out. As for election day itself, he stated that "there were reports of some irregularities at polling places in terms of campaign posters or t-shirts being seen at the actual polling place and a variety of other issues." The United States expressed its hope that "the Egyptian Government and the Egyptian people can build upon this positive first step in holding this multi-candidate presidential election and build on the positive experiences, the positive actions in this election, as they look towards parliamentary elections in the fall time and look to addressing some of those issues that I mentioned that were less positive."
, vote-buying, intimidation, and other forms of voter fraud marred the election on September 7, 2005.
On September 8, however, an election official and Mubarak's campaign both stated that it was around 30%.
Both on election day and afterwards, election monitoring groups stated that turnout was low, reportedly because ordinary Egyptians thought the outcome a foregone conclusion.
On September 8, anonymous sources stated turnout in Alexandria
, the second-largest city in Egypt
, was 17%, and turnout in Ismaïlia
(a city of about 750,000) was about 24%, with Mubarak taking more than 80% of the vote.
Wael Namara, a spokesman for Ayman Nour
of the Tomorrow Party
, estimated turnout to be between 10 and 15% in the countryside and from 3 to 5% in the cities.
In previous elections, voter turnout has run at less than 10 percent. Voter turnout in the May 2005 referendum that allowed the presidential election was officially reported as 54%, but judges monitoring the elections said it was more like 3%.
. Polling station
s in Cairo were plastered with Mubarak posters and members of the NDP hovered over voters, taking ballots from voters and handing them to polling station officials.
Ayman Nour
of the Tomorrow Party
, one of the most prominent opposition candidates, along with others, has accused the government of not using truly indelible ink
on the hands of voters, allowing voters favoring Hosni Mubarak
to remove stamps indicating they had voted and return to vote again. Indelible ink was used only in major boxes, while non-permanent ink was used in many other boxes. There were rumors of certain voters that had no ink at all which would make voter fraud even less difficult. Nour also alleged that there was widespread vote-buying, a charge supported by the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights, though not otherwise corroborated.
The Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights, while supporting Nour's claims, has stated that the irregularities were insufficient to require a rerun of the election.
protest by the Kefaya movement calling for Egyptians to boycott the elections, beating some of the protesters. Media sources state that as many as three thousand Kifaya protesters illegally marched on central Cairo, possibly the largest crowd ever drawn by that protest movement, while armed soldiers and police watched.
groups to monitor the election. However, in many cases they were not allowed into polling places and were beaten and interrogated, especially in Southern Egypt.
These citizen monitors were in addition to the Egyptian judge
s who have been allowed to independently monitor the elections.
Camilla Hall, a journalist at the Edinburgh Middle East Report
, showed, in an article in Winter 2006, how the Court of Cassation ruling, that revealed electoral fraud, displayed the weakness of parliamentary opposition
, compared to the relative strength of civil society
.
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
's history. Hosni Mubarak
Hosni Mubarak
Muhammad Hosni Sayyid Mubarak is a former Egyptian politician and military commander. He served as the fourth President of Egypt from 1981 to 2011....
, the former
Former
thumb|right|150px|Interior of an F-16B with the engine removed showing frames or formers.A former is a structural member of an aircraft fuselage, of which a typical fuselage has a series from the nose to the empennage, typically perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the aircraft...
President of Egypt
Rulers and heads of state of Egypt
Lists of rulers of Egypt:* List of pharaohs * List of governors of Roman Egypt * List of governors of Islamic Egypt * List of Semi-Independent governors of Islamic Egypt...
, won a fifth consecutive six-year term in office, with official results showing he won 88.6% of the vote. Mubarak's opponent, Ayman Nour
Ayman Nour
Ayman Abd El Aziz Nour is an Egyptian politician, a former member of the Egyptian Parliament and chairman of the El Ghad party.He was imprisoned in January 2005 by the government of President Hosni Mubarak. Nour was released on health grounds on February 18, 2009...
, of the Tomorrow Party
Tomorrow Party
The el-Ghad Party is an active political party in Egypt that was granted license in October 2004. El-Ghad is a centrist liberal secular political party pressing for widening the scope of political participation and for a peaceful rotation of power....
, is estimated to have received 7.3% of the vote and Numan Gumaa
Numan Gumaa
Numan Gumaa an attorney in Cairo and is the former chairman of the liberal New Wafd Party. He was nominated in 2005 for presidential election and came in third place.- Sources :* [RED]numan...
received 2.8%, however, Nur claimed that prior polling results showed over 30%. Criticism of the election process has cenetred on the process of selecting the eligible candidates, and on alleged election-law violations during voting. Mubarak was sworn in for his new term on September 27.
The election was the first-ever multi-party
Multi-party system
A multi-party system is a system in which multiple political parties have the capacity to gain control of government separately or in coalition, e.g.The Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition in the United Kingdom formed in 2010. The effective number of parties in a multi-party system is normally...
election in the history of Hosni Mubarak's authoritarian rule. Ten parties were set to take part; the leading candidates were:
- Hosni MubarakHosni MubarakMuhammad Hosni Sayyid Mubarak is a former Egyptian politician and military commander. He served as the fourth President of Egypt from 1981 to 2011....
of the National Democratic PartyNational Democratic Party (Egypt)The National Democratic Party , often simply called Al-Ḥizb al-Waṭaniy – the "National Party", was an Egyptian political party. It was founded by President Anwar El Sadat in 1978.... - Numan GumaaNuman GumaaNuman Gumaa an attorney in Cairo and is the former chairman of the liberal New Wafd Party. He was nominated in 2005 for presidential election and came in third place.- Sources :* [RED]numan...
of the New Wafd PartyNew Wafd PartyThe New Wafd Party is a nationalist liberal party in Egypt.It is the extension of one of the oldest and historically most active political parties in Egypt, Wafd Party, which was dismantled after the 1952 Revolution. The New Wafd was re-established in 1983... - Ayman NourAyman NourAyman Abd El Aziz Nour is an Egyptian politician, a former member of the Egyptian Parliament and chairman of the El Ghad party.He was imprisoned in January 2005 by the government of President Hosni Mubarak. Nour was released on health grounds on February 18, 2009...
of the Tomorrow PartyTomorrow PartyThe el-Ghad Party is an active political party in Egypt that was granted license in October 2004. El-Ghad is a centrist liberal secular political party pressing for widening the scope of political participation and for a peaceful rotation of power....
Also contending are:
- Osama Shaltut of the Solidarity PartySolidarity Party (Egypt)The Social Solidarity party is an Egyptian Islamist party with a membership of around 970 members. Five candidates affiliated with this party ran in the 2000 legislative elections.-External links:* at sis.gov.eg...
- Ibrahim Turk of the Democratic Union PartyDemocratic Union Party (Egypt)The Democratic Unionist Party is an Egyptian political party, with a membership of around 215 members...
- Ahmad al-Sabahi of the Umma PartyUmma Party (Egypt)The Umma Party is a small Egyptian political party with a total membership of around 185 members. The party platform presses for promoting socialist democracy and adopting the Islamic sharia as the main source of legislation...
- Rifaat al-Agrudi of the National Conciliation PartyNational Conciliation Party (Egypt)The National Conciliation Party is a small Egyptian political party with a membership of some 185 members. The party presses for reaching a solution to the Palestinian issue. It also calls for achieving an Arab economic integration, establishing the common Arab market and maintaining the Arab...
- Fawzi Ghaza of the Egypt 2000 PartyEgypt 2000 PartyThe Egypt 2000 Party is an Egyptian political party with a membership of around 165 members.The party nominated its head Dr. Fawzy Khalil Ghazal to run for Egypt's first multi-candidate presidential elections.- Goals :...
- Mamduh Qinawi of the Constitutional PartyFree Social Constitutional PartyThe Free Social Constitutional Party or Al-Hizb Al-Distouri is a political party in Egypt. The Free Social Constitutional Party might be considered as a liberal party.- Platform :* Drafting a new Constitution.* Reforming education....
- Wahid al-Uqsuri of the Egyptian Arab Socialist PartyEgyptian Arab Socialist PartyThe Egyptian Arab Socialist Party is an Egyptian Arab-Nationalist and Islamic socialist party with some 750 members.The party generally presses for preserving gains of the Egyptian Revolution of 1952.The party nominated its head, Mr...
(disqualified on September 3)
Change from Referendum on Mubarak's Rule
Until recently, EgyptiansEgyptians
Egyptians are nation an ethnic group made up of Mediterranean North Africans, the indigenous people of Egypt.Egyptian identity is closely tied to geography. The population of Egypt is concentrated in the lower Nile Valley, the small strip of cultivable land stretching from the First Cataract to...
have only been able to approve or reject a candidate appointed by parliament
Parliament of Egypt
The Parliament of Egypt is the currently dissolved bicameral legislature of Egypt. The Parliament is located in Cairo, Egypt's capital. As the legislative branch of the Egyptian government, the Parliament enacts laws, approves the general policy of the State, the general plan for economic and...
, which is dominated by Hosni Mubarak's
Hosni Mubarak
Muhammad Hosni Sayyid Mubarak is a former Egyptian politician and military commander. He served as the fourth President of Egypt from 1981 to 2011....
NDP
National Democratic Party (Egypt)
The National Democratic Party , often simply called Al-Ḥizb al-Waṭaniy – the "National Party", was an Egyptian political party. It was founded by President Anwar El Sadat in 1978....
.
Mubarak had been re-elected four times during his 24-year rule by such a referendum
Referendum
A referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. It is a form of...
. Mubarak won the 1999 referendum with almost 94% of the vote, though turnout was probably around 10%.
A constitutional amendment approved in a referendum in May 2005 opened the way for multi-candidate presidential elections.
2005 Presidential Election Process
Under Egyptian election lawElection law
Election law is a discipline falling at the juncture of constitutional law and political science. It researches "the politics of law and the law of politics"...
, all Egyptians over age eighteen are required to vote. However, out of a population of approximately 77,500,000 (the largest in the Arab world), only about 32 million voters were registered (approximately 40% of the total population).
Under the election law, parties proposed candidates for the election, which were reviewed by the Presidential Election Commission. Of the 30 proposed candidates, only 10 were allowed to participate in the presidential election by the Presidential Election Commission. One prominent candidate not allowed to run was Talaat Sadat
Talaat Sadat
Talaat Sadat was an Egyptian politician, lawyer and former political prisoner. He is the nephew of former Egyptian president Anwar Sadat. Talaat was arrested on 4 October 2006 after giving an interview in which he implicated Egyptian military forces in his uncle's 1981 assassination...
, the nephew of former President Anwar Sadat
Anwar Sadat
Muhammad Anwar al-Sadat was the third President of Egypt, serving from 15 October 1970 until his assassination by fundamentalist army officers on 6 October 1981...
, who appealed his disqualification unsuccessfully.
Egypt's largest Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
ic group, the Muslim Brotherhood
Muslim Brotherhood
The Society of the Muslim Brothers is the world's oldest and one of the largest Islamist parties, and is the largest political opposition organization in many Arab states. It was founded in 1928 in Egypt by the Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna and by the late 1940s had an...
, was not permitted to field a candidate for the election because the organization is banned by the government, which prohibits political parties with a stated religious agenda. The Brotherhood has not backed any of the other candidates, but they encouraged Egyptians to go to the polls and vote for anyone other than Mubarak.
The election campaign kicked off on August 17, 2005 and lasted until September 4, 2005. While many believed Hosni Mubarak's re-election a foregone conclusion, he campaigned seriously, trying to win votes across Egypt.
9,865 polling places
Polling station
A polling place or polling station is where voters cast their ballots in elections.Since elections generally take place over a one- or two-day span on a periodic basis, often annual or longer, polling places are often located in facilities used for other purposes, such as schools, churches, sports...
were open until 10:00 p.m. Wednesday, September 7, so that voters could cast their ballots. Full results were not expected until at least Thursday September 8.
The election was overseen by Egyptian judges. No international monitors were allowed to oversee the election.
According to a late August report by the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, media coverage was biased in favour of Hosni Mubarak.
If no candidate had received 50% of the vote, the top two candidates would have contested a second election scheduled for September 17.
Criticisms of the 2005 Presidential Election Arrangements
Some of the main legal opposition parties, including the leftist Tagammu Party and the Nasserist Party, boycotted the electionElection boycott
An election boycott is the boycotting of an election by a group of voters, each of whom abstains from voting.Boycotting may be used as a form of political protest where voters feel that electoral fraud is likely, or that the electoral system is biased against its candidates, or that the polity...
, saying it is unlikely to be free or fair. Those opposing the election say the electoral reforms have not gone far enough because the election regulations severely restrict independent candidates and overwhelmingly favour the NDP.
Secondly, the Muslim Brotherhood
Muslim Brotherhood
The Society of the Muslim Brothers is the world's oldest and one of the largest Islamist parties, and is the largest political opposition organization in many Arab states. It was founded in 1928 in Egypt by the Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna and by the late 1940s had an...
, believed to be the most popular opposition group in Egypt, was excluded from running in the elections because Mubarak's government has made it officially illegal and barred from major political processes. Supporters of the Brotherhood and other opposition parties state that this undermines the credibility of the election.
In addition, there appeared to be official harassment of the leading opposition candidate Nour, who was stripped of his parliamentary immunity and arrested on January 2005, on what many observers regarded as trumped-up charges. He was imprisoned for a short time that year before public and international outcry resulted in his release before trial.
The New Wafd Party
New Wafd Party
The New Wafd Party is a nationalist liberal party in Egypt.It is the extension of one of the oldest and historically most active political parties in Egypt, Wafd Party, which was dismantled after the 1952 Revolution. The New Wafd was re-established in 1983...
and the Tomorrow (Ghad) Party
Tomorrow Party
The el-Ghad Party is an active political party in Egypt that was granted license in October 2004. El-Ghad is a centrist liberal secular political party pressing for widening the scope of political participation and for a peaceful rotation of power....
contested the election even though they had opposed the May 2005 constitutional referendum, and their respective candidates, Numan Gumaa
Numan Gumaa
Numan Gumaa an attorney in Cairo and is the former chairman of the liberal New Wafd Party. He was nominated in 2005 for presidential election and came in third place.- Sources :* [RED]numan...
and Ayman Nour
Ayman Nour
Ayman Abd El Aziz Nour is an Egyptian politician, a former member of the Egyptian Parliament and chairman of the El Ghad party.He was imprisoned in January 2005 by the government of President Hosni Mubarak. Nour was released on health grounds on February 18, 2009...
, drew significant support -- Nour won 12% and Gumaa won 5-7%.
Results
Media reports on September 8, based on anonymous statements from election commission officials, stated that preliminary results showed President Hosni MubarakHosni Mubarak
Muhammad Hosni Sayyid Mubarak is a former Egyptian politician and military commander. He served as the fourth President of Egypt from 1981 to 2011....
winning 78% - 80% of the vote and Ayman Nour
Ayman Nour
Ayman Abd El Aziz Nour is an Egyptian politician, a former member of the Egyptian Parliament and chairman of the El Ghad party.He was imprisoned in January 2005 by the government of President Hosni Mubarak. Nour was released on health grounds on February 18, 2009...
winning 12%. Gumaa was reported as receiving 5-7%.
Late reports from September 8 placed Mubarak's numbers at approximately 72%, based once again on anonymous sources.
The official result, that Mubarak won the election with 88.6% of the vote, was announced on September 9, 2005. Detailed results, with results and voting breakdowns by province for 15 of the 26 provinces (not including the largest provinces), were published in Al-Ahram, a state newspaper. The same source states that Nour won 6.2% in the 15 provinces, 20% in the Nile delta province of Buheira, and 16% in Alexandria.
Nour Demands Rerun of Election
Following widespread reports of election law violations, Nour immediately demanded a rerun of the election. However, the Presidential Election Commission rejected his request as baseless on September 8, 2005, a decision that cannot be appealed. Nour's campaign manager, Wael Nawara, noted the Nour camp's surprise that the Presidential Election Commission would reject Nour's claims "despite the coverage from the media and the repetitive nature of these complaints."Long-Term Impact of the Election
While the result of the election appears to be a Mubarak victory, as many expected, another result many noted was a step toward democratization in Egypt, even if it had been marred by irregularities.International Reaction
SaudiSaudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal
Saud bin Faisal bin Abdul Aziz
Saud bin Faisal bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud , also known as Saud Al Faisal, has been the Foreign Minister of Saudi Arabia since 1975. He is the world's longest-serving Foreign Minister....
stated that the elections show that Mubarak has democratic intentions and that elections can take place there without harming stability: "The poll that took place in Egypt refutes the case made by those who claim Egypt is unstable and question its march toward the future."
United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
State Department
United States Department of State
The United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...
spokesman Sean McCormack said that the United States saw this election as a "historic departure" and the debate during the election process would "enrich the Egyptian political dialogue, certainly for years to come." McCormack also stated that "the Egyptian security services showed discipline in ensuring safety and security" and praised the "relative calm" of Election Day.
However, McCormack criticized the lack of international monitors and the late decision to allow monitors, as well as the lack of media access that prevented opposition candidates from getting their message out. As for election day itself, he stated that "there were reports of some irregularities at polling places in terms of campaign posters or t-shirts being seen at the actual polling place and a variety of other issues." The United States expressed its hope that "the Egyptian Government and the Egyptian people can build upon this positive first step in holding this multi-candidate presidential election and build on the positive experiences, the positive actions in this election, as they look towards parliamentary elections in the fall time and look to addressing some of those issues that I mentioned that were less positive."
Election Day Events
Though support for Mubarak is significant and he was expected to win by a wide margin, charges of widespread confusion, ballot stuffingBallot stuffing
Ballot stuffing is the illegal act of one person submitting multiple ballots during a vote in which only one ballot per person is permitted. The name originates from the earliest days of this practice in which people literally did stuff more than one ballot in a ballot box at the same time...
, vote-buying, intimidation, and other forms of voter fraud marred the election on September 7, 2005.
Low Turnout
The Mubarak government initially stated that turnout was high, though numbers varied. Surprisingly, on September 9, the government released results and turnout figures that were low and may have been accurate, as low in some places as 19%.On September 8, however, an election official and Mubarak's campaign both stated that it was around 30%.
Both on election day and afterwards, election monitoring groups stated that turnout was low, reportedly because ordinary Egyptians thought the outcome a foregone conclusion.
On September 8, anonymous sources stated turnout in Alexandria
Alexandria
Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...
, the second-largest city in Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, was 17%, and turnout in Ismaïlia
Ismaïlia
-Notable natives:*Osman Ahmed Osman, a famous and influential Egyptian engineer, contractor, entrepreneur, and politician, was born in this town on 6 April 1917....
(a city of about 750,000) was about 24%, with Mubarak taking more than 80% of the vote.
Wael Namara, a spokesman for Ayman Nour
Ayman Nour
Ayman Abd El Aziz Nour is an Egyptian politician, a former member of the Egyptian Parliament and chairman of the El Ghad party.He was imprisoned in January 2005 by the government of President Hosni Mubarak. Nour was released on health grounds on February 18, 2009...
of the Tomorrow Party
Tomorrow Party
The el-Ghad Party is an active political party in Egypt that was granted license in October 2004. El-Ghad is a centrist liberal secular political party pressing for widening the scope of political participation and for a peaceful rotation of power....
, estimated turnout to be between 10 and 15% in the countryside and from 3 to 5% in the cities.
In previous elections, voter turnout has run at less than 10 percent. Voter turnout in the May 2005 referendum that allowed the presidential election was officially reported as 54%, but judges monitoring the elections said it was more like 3%.
Alleged Irregularities
Allegations of election law violations surfaced during the voting. News media reported that Mubarak's National Democratic Party transported voters to the polls by bus, and allegedly did not allow voters to mark their choices behind a curtain, an essential requirement of a secret ballotSecret ballot
The secret ballot is a voting method in which a voter's choices in an election or a referendum are anonymous. The key aim is to ensure the voter records a sincere choice by forestalling attempts to influence the voter by intimidation or bribery. The system is one means of achieving the goal of...
. Polling station
Polling station
A polling place or polling station is where voters cast their ballots in elections.Since elections generally take place over a one- or two-day span on a periodic basis, often annual or longer, polling places are often located in facilities used for other purposes, such as schools, churches, sports...
s in Cairo were plastered with Mubarak posters and members of the NDP hovered over voters, taking ballots from voters and handing them to polling station officials.
Ayman Nour
Ayman Nour
Ayman Abd El Aziz Nour is an Egyptian politician, a former member of the Egyptian Parliament and chairman of the El Ghad party.He was imprisoned in January 2005 by the government of President Hosni Mubarak. Nour was released on health grounds on February 18, 2009...
of the Tomorrow Party
Tomorrow Party
The el-Ghad Party is an active political party in Egypt that was granted license in October 2004. El-Ghad is a centrist liberal secular political party pressing for widening the scope of political participation and for a peaceful rotation of power....
, one of the most prominent opposition candidates, along with others, has accused the government of not using truly indelible ink
Election ink
Election ink or electoral stain is a semi-permanent ink or dye that is applied to the forefinger of voters during elections in order to prevent electoral fraud such as double voting...
on the hands of voters, allowing voters favoring Hosni Mubarak
Hosni Mubarak
Muhammad Hosni Sayyid Mubarak is a former Egyptian politician and military commander. He served as the fourth President of Egypt from 1981 to 2011....
to remove stamps indicating they had voted and return to vote again. Indelible ink was used only in major boxes, while non-permanent ink was used in many other boxes. There were rumors of certain voters that had no ink at all which would make voter fraud even less difficult. Nour also alleged that there was widespread vote-buying, a charge supported by the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights, though not otherwise corroborated.
The Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights, while supporting Nour's claims, has stated that the irregularities were insufficient to require a rerun of the election.
Protests by Kefaya Movement
On September 7, 2005, men in plainclothes broke up a CairoCairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
protest by the Kefaya movement calling for Egyptians to boycott the elections, beating some of the protesters. Media sources state that as many as three thousand Kifaya protesters illegally marched on central Cairo, possibly the largest crowd ever drawn by that protest movement, while armed soldiers and police watched.
Election monitoring
At 10:00 a.m. on September 7, two hours after the start of the election, Egypt's Presidential Election Commission unexpectedly stated that it would allow civil societyCivil society
Civil society is composed of the totality of many voluntary social relationships, civic and social organizations, and institutions that form the basis of a functioning society, as distinct from the force-backed structures of a state , the commercial institutions of the market, and private criminal...
groups to monitor the election. However, in many cases they were not allowed into polling places and were beaten and interrogated, especially in Southern Egypt.
These citizen monitors were in addition to the Egyptian judge
Judge
A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as part of a panel of judges. The powers, functions, method of appointment, discipline, and training of judges vary widely across different jurisdictions. The judge is supposed to conduct the trial impartially and in an open...
s who have been allowed to independently monitor the elections.
Camilla Hall, a journalist at the Edinburgh Middle East Report
Edinburgh Middle East Report
The Edinburgh Middle East Report , often abbreviated to EMER, is Scotland's only periodical dedicated to the Middle East. Founded in 2006 by George Richards and Camilla Hall, two students at the University of Edinburgh's Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies Department, the Report covers political,...
, showed, in an article in Winter 2006, how the Court of Cassation ruling, that revealed electoral fraud, displayed the weakness of parliamentary opposition
Opposition (parliamentary)
Parliamentary opposition is a form of political opposition to a designated government, particularly in a Westminster-based parliamentary system. Note that this article uses the term government as it is used in Parliamentary systems, i.e. meaning the administration or the cabinet rather than the state...
, compared to the relative strength of civil society
Civil society
Civil society is composed of the totality of many voluntary social relationships, civic and social organizations, and institutions that form the basis of a functioning society, as distinct from the force-backed structures of a state , the commercial institutions of the market, and private criminal...
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More Protests
A larger protest of around 10,000 people was organized by Kifaya on September 10, 2005, to contest the election results and the mass rigging activities and cheating that occurred on the election day. It was reported by independent observers, reporters and candidate representatives that the NDP (Mubarak's Party) used government resources to change the election results. In some cases, citizens were beaten or forced to vote for Mubarak. In other cases, the boxes were already filled with marked ballots. However, the most explicit action that provoked the protest was allowing pro-Mubarak voters only to vote without being previously registered in the voter lists, giving Mubarak between 20 to 30 extra illegal points in the results.External links
- BBC: Guide to Egypt's election
- Al-Jazeera: Egypt's Brotherhood urges all to vote
- Al-Jazeera: Egyptian judges to supervise election
- BBC: Egypt votes in landmark election
- Al-Jazeera: Opposition cries foul in Egyptian vote
- Washington Post: Mubarak Wins Egypt's First Open Vote
- IFEX: Election coverage favours Mubarak
- CTV.ca Egyptian opposition denounces results of election
- Mubarak's Real Opposition | Electoral Monitoring Uncovered by Camilla Hall. Edinburgh Middle East ReportEdinburgh Middle East ReportThe Edinburgh Middle East Report , often abbreviated to EMER, is Scotland's only periodical dedicated to the Middle East. Founded in 2006 by George Richards and Camilla Hall, two students at the University of Edinburgh's Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies Department, the Report covers political,...
Online. Winter 2006