Election Monitors Undermined by PEC

Four coalitions of a combined thirty-five Egyptian NGOs spent months preparing nearly 4,000 domestic monitors for the September 7th presidential election. The Ibn Khaldun Center, a member of the Independent Committee for Election Monitoring (ICEM), helped train and dispatch 2,200 of those monitors. The domestic monitoring efforts, however, met seemingly systematic resistance from the government-appointed Presidential Election Commission (PEC). The Committee deliberately abused its power to create confusion and undermine the monitors.

Knowing that time was on their side in the months before the election, the PEC refused to answer questions, respond to letters or allow representatives of the monitoring coalitions to enter its headquarters. It was not until the 16th of August that Mamdouh Mara’i, chairman of the PEC, declared publicly that domestic monitors would be prohibited from entering polling stations. The PEC defended its declaration, stating that Egyptian judges were already charged with monitoring the polls, and needed no double supervision from ordinary citizens. Meanwhile, members of the Judges’ Club—a de facto trade union—requested monitoring assistance from civil society, citing the 13,000 polling stations and thus, the insufficiency of 8,000 official judges.

The PEC’s declaration prompted a legal dispute as three of the domestic monitoring coalitions filed suit against the PEC, demanding the right to enter the polling stations. The coalitions maintained that there is no justification for denying ordinary citizens the right to observe and ensure the transparency of an essential function of their political life. Moreover, civil society organizations saw their role not as monitoring the behavior of judges, but rather the neutrality of polling stations and the forms of fraud—from vote buying to stuffing of ballot boxes—which had proven commonplace in past elections and referenda. Monitors were, nonetheless, prepared to do much of this work and estimate voter turnout from outside the polling stations if prohibited from entering the actual rooms where ballots were cast.

The administrative court finally ruled in favor of the monitoring coalitions on September 3rd, but withdrew that ruling on September 6th, when the PEC challenged the court’s jurisdiction. The PEC now seemed poised to follow though on its September 16th declaration that domestic monitors not be allowed. However, in a late reversal of that policy, the Commission announced three hours after the polls opened that monitors could enter the polling stations, if they first went to the PEC headquarters and obtained the appropriate paperwork. This was impossible in all but a few cases. Judges and election officials at the polling places were unaware that the announcement had been made, so the vast majority of monitors were unable to gain access to observe the casting or counting of ballots.

Treatment of domestic monitors represents only one of many egregious forms of mismanagement on the part of the Presidential Election Commission. Even if delayed and ineffectual, the declaration allowing domestic monitors was made. Moreover, President Mubarak announced a day before the election that he personally had no objection to domestic monitoring efforts. Now, well in advance of the parliamentary elections, Egyptian civil society organizations must demand official declarations from election authorities which allow full access to monitor the casting, counting, and transport of ballots.