Restricting the national electoral monitoring after the rejection of the international one

The Independent Coalition for Elections’ Observation

The Egyptian Coalition for Monitoring Elections          

24-11-2010
Press Release

Restricting the national electoral monitoring after the rejection of the international one
Civil society organizations do not need useless permits to carry out their patriotic duty

Civil society organizations firmly reject the restrictions imposed by the High Elections Commission (HEC) on monitoring the electoral process. The Egyptian government has pledged to offer guarantees for national monitoring of the electoral process after its absolute rejection of international elections monitoring and its prohibition of any attempts of applying such monitoring. Far from keeping its promise, such guarantees were never actualized as the HEC had imposed a set of restrictions and conditions which represent dire obstacles and hindrances to the work of the civil society’s observers. Such restrictions defeat the purpose of monitoring the elections and evacuate it of any real meaning, especially as they require securing permissions from the head of the general or the secondary electoral committees before being allowed into the voting and counting stations. In addition, insufficient meager authorizations have been granted to civil society organizations, which are way less than the number required by such organizations to carry out meaningful effective monitoring of the elections in an attempt by the Egyptian government to add a fictitious illusionary legitimacy on the forthcoming electoral sham.  

Civil Society organizations have discussed this hostile attitude which practically rejects any monitoring efforts over the elections and have demanded the HEC to review its position to enable the organizations to conduct a real observatory role rather than playing a theatrical meaningless part in a farce. The civil society organizations have thus demanded the HEC to issue the monitoring authorizations quickly before Thursday 25/11/2010 at 5 P.M. in order for the organizations to deliver such authorizations to their observers in the different Egyptian governorates, and to allow all observers into the voting and counting stations; so long as they have the authorizations issued by the HEC. 

 The organizations signatory to this statement declare that in the case of not receiving the required authorizations before the date set above, they will not receive them at all and will continue to monitor the elections and document all violations without such authorizations. The civil society organizations are also in constant dialogue and discussion of what is known as “the electoral process”.

This statement has been signed by a number of civil society organizations which are:
1- Andalus Institute for Tolerance and anti-Violence Studies
2- The Egyptian Association for Community Participation Enhancement.
3- The Egyptian Association for Supporting Democratic Development.
4- The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights.
5- The Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights
6- Center for Trade Union and Worker’s Services.
7- Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies.