Uncertainty shadows the eve of Egypt’s elections

On the eve of historic elections, Egyptians are wary.  No one has any idea who will win the country’s first post-Mubarak presidential race. And many of the Egyptians who aren’t boycotting the election also aren’t voting for any candidate.

They’re voting against all the others.

New post at UCLA's The Generation. View the full article here: Uncertainty shadows the eve of Egypt’s elections

Why the international media gets Egypt wrong

An article by the Associated Press today began, “the long banned Muslim Brotherhood has been recognized as the Freedom and Justice Party.”

That’s not quite true.

What the article means to say is that the Freedom and Justice Party, founded by the long banned Muslim Brotherhood, has been recognized.

The difference is significant.

While Egypt’s political scene has accepted the Muslim Brotherhood as a legitimate actor, the organization which has been banned for decades is still, officially, banned. The Freedom and Justice Party was indeed founded by the Brotherhood and in the party the Brotherhood has its first legal political entity.

However, the party does not exclusively contain Brotherhood members, nor are all members of the Brotherhood automatically members of the party. According to one of the party’s founders, 25 percent of its members are not affiliated with the Brotherhood. What’s more, around 8 percent are women and Coptic Christians.

It remains to be seen how the party’s relationship with the Brotherhood will play out, but technically the Associated Press got its facts wrong.

This is only one small example of the international media’s frequent mistake when it comes to Egypt and the wider Arab world: they see only the surface and do not know, or do not understand, the nuances.

The problem is twofold: first, manpower and resources. Second, the target audience is, usually, not the Middle East.

The issue of distributing resources is something all newspapers and news agencies must come to terms with. International agencies must cover the entire world and consequently cannot devote too many resources to any one area. That said, the entire world is watching the Middle East now more than ever and consequently it is more important to get the facts straight than ever before. Small slip-ups could have far-reaching implications.

The second issue is arguably more important. News agencies want their stories to be understandable. It is one of the fundamental principles of journalism: convey your story to your reader so they understand what you’re talking about. But oversimplification to this extent does not help anyone. It certainly does not help the “West” understand the Arab world.

Journalism’s goal is not to defeat misperceptions, but the international media must learn to balance the simple goal of telling the news with a more complex duty to portray more than the surface of its subject.

When it comes to the Arab world, too often foreign media takes the easy road: they report what they see with their own eyes and talk with people it’s easy to talk to. Namely, other journalists and people who speak their language or are of their own social class.

Watching coverage of the Egyptian Revolution in the United States, many Americans thought to themselves, “Hey, it looks like America succeeded in Egypt. Everyone speaks English.”

Those reporting the world-changing events taking place in Cairo’s now-iconic Tahrir Square made the vital mistake of interviewing predominantly English-speaking Egyptians, probably because it was easier.

In the short-term such reporting may be easier. In the long-term, however, this sort of reporting misses what’s actually happening on the ground; it misses the opportunity to portray a different culture and a different way of thinking in a way its target audience – in this case, the Western world – can understand.

This is why the international media consistently gets Egypt wrong, and probably part of the reasons misconceptions about the region continue to prevail. It is no longer acceptable to skim the surface and write the easy story – if it ever was. The world does not only want the surface news. The world wants to understand Egypt.

This article was originally published at Youm7 English Edition on June 7, 2011.

Wrapup: Egypt's Constitutional Referendum

Today Egyptians voted ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on proposed amendments to the Egyptian constitution. It is the first vote held since the resignation of Egypt’s former president, Hosni Mubarak, in February, after nearly thirty years of rule.

The amendments were drafted by a committee appointed by Egypt’s ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) last month. Among other things, the amendments ease the requirements for presidential candidacy, require judicial supervision of elections, and require that Emergency Law be approved by the people if it is to be in effect longer than 6 months.

Polls opened at 8am across Egypt, and within hours turnout was unprecedented. By 9am, over 1,000 people were qued outside a polling station in Cairo’s Zamalek neighborhood, and there were similar scenes at many other polling stations. Some voters reported waiting in line for as long as five hours to cast their ballots.

One report said so many people had come to vote at the Faculty of Engineering polling station in Cairo that new ballot boxes had to be brought in because the first ones were filled. So many voters turned out in Upper Egypt that the Egyptian military flew more judges in to observe.

Despite the wait, millions of Egyptians were willing to stand in line for the chance to cast a ballot in what many feel will be the first vote where their ballot will actually be counted, and where the outcome is not a foregone conclusion. Egyptians young and old took pictures of their inked fingers to share with friends or post on their Facebook profiles.

While the vast majority of Egyptians were willing to wait in long lines to cast their ballots, Cairo’s governor, Abdel Azim Wazeer, was kicked out of a polling station by voters for not waiting his turn. In contrast, Twitter was buzzing this morning over Prime Minister Essam Sharaf’s refusal to cut in line. Instead, the Prime Minister waited in line with the people for his turn to cast his ballot.

As voting drew to a close, reports of irregularities and violations throughout the day continued to surface.

The most common irregularities in Cairo regarded the indelible ink and official stamps on ballots. Voters are required to dip their fingers in a bottle of ink which is supposed to stain their fingers for an extended period of time. It was particularly important today, as voters were allowed to vote with their national ID cards at the nearest polling station rather than with voting cards at a specific station.

While some Egyptians reported the ink was indeed permanent, others confirmed it washed off easily or wore off throughout the course of normal activity.

The second main complaint was that some ballots were missing the required official stamp, and voters worried those ballots would not be counted. However, a statement by the Supreme Judicial Committee in charge of supervising the referendum guaranteed the validity of the unstamped ballots so long as the signature of the supervising judge was present.

El-Sayyid el-Badawi, president of the liberal Al-Wafd Party, said the religious trends in Egypt abused the vote of the poor by telling them if they did not vote ‘yes,’ Article 2 of the Egyptian constitution will be canceled. Article 2 defines Egypt as an Islamic state and cites Islamic Sharia law as a source of legislation.

The Egyptian coalition for election supervision said the Muslim Brotherhood, generally considered Egypt’s largest and best organized opposition group, has used the slogan ‘Yes with Allah’ to convince its followers to vote yes.

In the city of Suez, mosques were used earlier in the day by Salafists to tell people they must vote ‘yes’ if they want to protect Sharia law. Also in Suez sources said there were many basic violations inside polling stations, including excessive presence of army personnel inside the polling stations and no curtains or voter privacy.

The campaigning has happened despite a statement from SCAF saying that any such campaigning was forbidden.

The Brotherhood is the only significant force outside the former ruling regime that called for a ‘yes’ vote in today’s referendum.

Despite its support of the amendments, however, the Brotherhood’s General Guide, Muhammad Badie, said the brotherhood will accept the outcome of the referendum whatever it is because it is the will of the Egyptian people and they are the real source of power.

Youm7 has learned that some polling stations have witnessed separate queues for Muslims and Christians, something not seen before in Egyptian polls. Separate queues - or even polling stations - for men and women are common.

According to reports, Human Rights lawyer Rajia Omran was arrested while monitoring polls in Bab el-Khalk after being asked to leave despite having a permit to monitor. Further details have not been made available.

Prominent Egyptian opposition figure and former head of the UN’s IAEA Mohamed ElBaradei was attacked by a mob throwing stones this afternoon as he went to vote in the Cairo neighborhood of Moqattam. According to reports, ElBaradei was met with chants of “we don’t want you” by people opposed to his presidential candidacy.

ElBaradei stated on his Twitter account that he went to vote with his family and was attacked by organized thugs who smashed his car with rocks. He said holding a referendum in the absence of law and order is an irresponsible act.

It is the first major report of violence from Cairo. There was also a report of a clash between two groups of voters in Daqahlia. The Egyptian Health Ministry said it has not received any reports of injuries related to today’s vote.

The lack of violence is significant: during November’s parliamentary elections, violence was widespread and three people died in Cairo alone.

Social media was once again an important tool for activists during today’s referendum. Egyptians discussed their experiences, shared which polling places were relatively empty and which had hours-long lines, and reported possible voting irregularities.

Despite the reports of violations, today’s vote saw far fewer irregularities and violations than are typical of Egyptian polls, in addition to seeing unprecedented voter turnout across Egypt. Many Egyptians are hopeful that the vote will be legitimate.

There were reports earlier in the day that polling stations would remain open past the originally scheduled closing time of 7pm due to high voter turnout, but it appears that polling stations were closed on time.

The past week saw intense debate over the amendments, but the vast majority of Egyptians will likely accept the results of the referendum, whatever they may be. Today, Egyptians had their first taste of democracy.

As one young Egyptian said on the social networking site Twitter, "Today Egyptians have demonstrated that they are ready for democracy, but the system is the one lagging far behind."

Egypt’s Revolution: A victory embodied by the Egyptian spirit

No one expected that peaceful protests and perseverance could topple the third-longest ruler in Egyptian history – but they did, and in less than three weeks.

What’s more, Egyptians won their victory as a people, not as a mass following a leader. Throughout history there have been various peaceful revolutions, but each had a figurehead: Nelson Mandela in South Africa, Gahndi in India, Martin Luther King in the Civil Rights movement in the United States. Each a worthy cause with a worthy leader.

Many images from the last nineteen days will be recorded in history: Egyptians chanting ‘peaceful, peaceful’ before being attacked by State Security; armored trucks turning water cannons on demonstrators as they prayed; Christian Egyptians surrounding their Muslim brothers, protecting them as they prayed; millions of people gathered in Tahrir – Liberation – Square.

These are the images of a people long known as friendly and hospitable, who have shown the world how deeply the Egyptian spirit runs.

In the early days of the revolution, for every young man who wanted to throw a stone at State Security forces there were five others to stop him. They would not instigate violence, but at a point demonstrators did retaliate: Police shot tear gas at demonstrators. The people kicked it away, threw it back, or tried to put it out. Police threw stones. Demonstrators threw them back. Police shot rubber bullets at demonstrators. Demonstrators set police vans on fire.

Even so, the overwhelming desire among the people was for everything to be peaceful. When State Security withdrew from Cairo on January 28, the people did not chase them out. On the contrary, I witnessed some demonstrators go to them and congratulate them, sharing the victory.

In less than three weeks Egyptians shattered the wall of fear which had kept them silent for decades. The wall had been cracked already, and the foundation was a bit unstable, but until January 25 that wall still stood. On the evening of January 25 I stood in Tahrir Square as tens of thousands of Egyptians gathered there for the first time, giddy with excitement.

I spoke with a lawyer who had helped found the human rights movement in Egypt in the 1970s, and had been part of the student demonstrations in 1973 and 1977. “I was here in Tahrir in 1977 and I was arrested for that demonstration,” he told me. “And now I am here again and I see all these young people, the age of my son and my daughters.” For him, as for many others, it was an emotional moment.

Destroying that ‘culture of fear,’ as I once heard it called, is one of the single most important victories of Egypt’s revolution. Whatever happens next, Egyptians now know that they can go to the streets and demand their rights.

So, what happens next? This is the question both Egyptians and the world have been asking for nineteen days. Hosni Mubarak, against all odds, is gone. What now?

Many have expressed the fear of a power vacuum. The military is in control, but that makes some uneasy. Others fear the Muslim Brotherhood will take over and impose some version of Islamic rule. Some of the fears are valid, some misplaced, but all seem to have overlooked the most important thing Egyptians have taught themselves and the world over the past nineteen days: Egyptians can take care of themselvevs.

Egyptians can take care of themselves. When the police pulled out of the city, Egyptians took it upon themselves to safeguard their homes and their history. They locked arms in front of the Egyptian Museum to protect it, and when thugs broke in from the roof the people quickly arrested them and turned them over to the army.

Within hours of the disappearance of security guards and traffic police, citizens organized road blocks, checkpoints, and neighborhood watch groups – and all without access to the internet or mobile phones.

Committees were organized to clean the streets and pick up garbage. People took it upon themselves to set up makeshift clinics in Tahrir Square and to bring food, water, and blankets to distribute to the people demonstrating there 24 hours a day.

Egypt did not fall into chaos, and did not fall for the rumors the government was trying to spread. In places where there was violence and looting, the people knew it was government-hired thugs and prisoners who mysteriously escaped from prisons who were causing trouble: it was not the people themselves.

The regime tried to force the people to choose between security and liberty and the people, in true Egyptian fashion, made their own option. They chose both. And it will not be quick or easy, but with more of the perseverance and compassion Egyptians have embodied in the last three weeks, they will keep both.

Elections round 2 so far...

By 2pm, there are a few things we know about the second round of parliamentary elections in Egypt today:

1. 283 seats, more than half the total number of seats in parliament, are being contested today (meaning no candidate for those seats won the 50%+1 majority needed in last Sunday's elections).
2. Of those seats, 188 are being contested between members of the same party - the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP). 114 are being contested outright between NDP members, and another 74 are being contested between NDP members and independents running under the party's platform.
3. There are rumors that in an attempt to fix its massive over-rigging last week, the goverment is rigging votes in favor of non-NDP candidates this time around. According to tweets and Al-Ahram's English online portal, an NDP candidate in Dakahleya's Aga district has withdrawn from today's runoff citing vote-rigging in favor of his competitor, a Tagammu candidate.
4. Voter turnout is, as expected, noticeably lower than it was last week. According to the High Elections Commission (HEC), voter turnout last Sunday was 35% (There is strong suspicion that the number is vastly inflated. In Qasr el-Nil, a strategic district in downtown Cairo, only about 8.5% of registered voters cast ballots). We'll see what the "official" numbers are, but voter turnout might hover around 10% at the most today.
5. Reports of violence, vote-rigging, polling stations opening late, representatives and monitors not being allowed into polling stations, and other irregularities have already been reported.
6. Only 2 of 9 Wafd party run-off candidates headed the party's decision to boycott the second round of elections. Wafd party officials say those who disobeyed the party's order will be stripped of their party membership.
7. Even if every independent and opposition candidate won their seat today - including those of the Wafd and Muslim Brotherhood who are boycotting - the NDP would still control approximately 80% of the seats in Parliament.

That's it for now, folks. Tune in later for more updates.