The general indications for the initial analysis of results
of observation and follow-up of the presidential elections - 2005
On the night of the seventh of September 2005, the first presidential elections in Egypt
has ended, and our association has observed, analyzed and studied the elections, through
the surveillance of twenty distributed constituency all over the country, a sample
representing all of the Egyptian society, including countryside and an urban regions,
north, south and amid of the country, border governorates and coastal governorates and
Suez channel cities.
The election process had many diversities and differences in the performance of the same
authorities in the different places, and the prominence of roles of authorities, and a retreat
of roles of other authorities that we were used to its presence at the top of the lines in
such occasions.
One of the most significant roles, a role that will remain in the nation's memory for a long
period from the time, is the role of the Egyptian judges in the election operation, starting
from their role in the administration of the committee of the presidential elections, and
that Consultant / Mamdouh Marei, who was said to have played the role that the Ministry
of Interior played in the previous elections, preventing huge numbers of judges different
in opinion from participating in managing the election process, he also ordered the
prevention of the Egyptian civil society enterprises from their constitutional right in the
surveillance of the elections. The role of public prosecution, money prosecutions and the
State Judicial Department, that was clearly conspiring with the violations that took place
in favor of the National Party candidate, and not committed to the rules and the laws
organizing the election process. And lastly the honorable and tentative role of the most of
sitting judges who maintained the committees’ administration that they managed
according to the rules and the laws, starting from opening the ballot boxes and the
reception of the electors, until the completion of the sorting operation and the declaration
of the election results.
The initial indications of results of observation, follow-up and analysis are as follows:
The election propaganda:
Our observers concentrated on a quantitative and qualitative observation and analysis for
the propaganda of the field candidates, where other supervisory authorities carried out a
member in the coalition with the supervision of the propaganda in different mass media.
Our observers have noticed those observations:
 The excessiveness in the propaganda of the National Party candidate that by no
means matched with the propaganda of other candidates. The propaganda of the rest
of the presidential candidates gathered only resembled 8% of the propaganda of the
National Party candidate.
 The propaganda presented to the National Party candidate from the members of the
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current People's Assembly and Shura Council, the supporters of the National party,
businessmen and merchants, resembled more than 90 % of the party’s total
propaganda.
The National Party supporters showed their names, jobs and their party and social
position in many times using not only speeches but also huge pictures, in their
propaganda and support of the National Party candidate, that it looked like as if they
were the candidates themselves, and that there is an election battle turning between
them.
The propaganda of the supporters of the National Party candidate from the business
men was big, containing the election constituencies they were used to engage their
parliamentary elections in.
The administrative and local authorities forced junior and mid-sized shop owners by
its different kinds to participate in the propaganda by placing signs to the National
Party candidate, or else they will be exposed to different administrative penalties like
the occupation of the way and other forms of violations that may be already
disregarded.
Only few of supporters to other parties’ candidates worked on the propaganda by
their names in favor of the candidates of their parties, fearing their exposure to
punishment, and those ho did mention their names where harmed.
The election propaganda of all candidates continued till the Election Day, all
propaganda forms in favor of the National Party candidate were made inside the
election committees in the Election Day itself.
The elections and the state institutions:
 The of the wide use of the country’s authority, influence and capabilities in favor of
the National Party candidate; forcing employees and workers to do direct roles in
placing or distribution of propaganda... etc, the use of vehicles belonging to the
governmental organizations and institutions to transfer electors and propaganda
items... etc.
 The influence of senior country employees, the ministries deputies, the boards of
directors’ presidents and the public managers to force their employees to vote in favor
of the National Party candidate.
The role of the official religious institutions:
 As Islamic religious and Christian commands, the declaration of the Al Azhar Imam
and the church pope Al Orthodox to their support of the National Party candidate was
a political bias not proper from religious commands.
 The bias of the Orthodox church, through the support of the priests and their call for
voting in favor of the National Party candidate, during the lessons and the prayers in
the last week before the elections.
 The Ministry of Endowments – through mosque imams – didn’t directly call to voting
in favor of the National Party candidate, where most of the imams – in prayer speech
on Friday 2 September – only invited citizens participate in the elections as their duty.
Where only small group of them requested people to vote in favor of the National
Party candidate.
The role of the media enterprises:
Please return to the report of Cairo center of the human rights studies, and also Al
Mahrosa center of the researches and the studies in this regard, as both are members in
the coalition, and have prepared specialized reports regarding the role of the media
enterprises.
The role of the security institutions:
 In general, the security in the cities was characterized by non rude intervention in the
elections like the physical presence inside the election headquarters, but – in the same
time – they totally neglected any violations carried out by the National Party
candidate supporters, whether harassing other candidates delegates – if they existed –
or the electors who vote for other candidates, even practicing propaganda inside the
headquarters of the election committees and the addition of the cards to the election
boxes.
 As for the countryside and distant headquarters – like Al-Wadi Al-Jadid and North
Sinai – the security performance did not differ from the cities a lot except the direct
intervention sometimes in the election process and the direct and clear bias to the
National Party candidate.
The electors’ participation ratio in the voting:
According to the observers notes in the different governorates, the signing in the electors
lists and by questioning some judges from the committees presidents who accepted the
cooperation with the surveillance authorities from civil society institutions and with the
exclusion of the rude states of the forgery, we reached what follows :
First:
In the committees where the committee’s presidents from the sitting judges enforced
order and discipline, containing no electors from governmental authorities, organizations,
companies or enterprises in the urban headquarters, the participation ratio ranged between
5 and 8 %.
Second:
In the disciplined committees, containing electors from organizations and governmental
authorities, participation ratio ranged from 15 - 20 %, according to the calculation of the
ratio of number of these electors to the recorded total number in the committee, where the
collective transfer took place to these electors from the their work places to their
corresponding voting committees using their departments and tourist transport vehicles.
Third:
The ratio of the participation is in the countryside is in general higher than them in the
urban regions.
Fourth:
In other, uncontrollable committees that did not consider rules and laws, and that allowed
some rude forms of forgery from the National Party supporters whether by filling election
boxes with cards, or by permitting big numbers of unknown citizens to vote without an
election card and sometimes without a personal identity card. The vote ratio in those
committees exceeded 50 % sometimes.
Some rude violations form:
 The presence of many of the election committees inside police stations headquarters,
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thus violating law.
The presence of the electors lists outside some of the committees with policemen and
National Party members only.
The vote of out comers in some of the committees by identity card only, violating
law.
The non commitment of some committees to the opening time, raising many doubts.
The collective voting in some of the governorates from unknown persons to the
constituent (Suez city for example).
Some election committees’ officials for ladies directed the illiterate electors to place
their print in the place corresponding to the National Party candidate.
Delegates of the National Party candidate sometimes accompanied the electors during
the polling process in some of the committees, not respecting of the voting secrecy.
General notes:
 The National Party main battle was not with the competing candidates, but with the
participants’ ratio where the main challenge to them was to raise the participation
ratio to 50 %, which wasn’t possible except in limited committees, by the ways
already mentioned.
 The presence of a side battle was noticed on the sidelines of the elections battle
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between the competitors from the National Party supporters on the nomination of the
party to them in the coming parliament elections, where mutual insulting and fighting
inside the committees headquarters took place as they were competing to prove who
is most loyal to the party and is most suitable to gather crowds in favor of the party
candidate in the presidential elections.
Most of the sitting judges’ performance was respectful, considering rules and laws.
Also one must take into consideration the insufficiency of their number which limited
the ability for them to cover a big ratio from the committees.
Large number of judges allowed the presence of observers of the civil society inside
the election headquarters and facilitated their task, some of them allowed the
attendance of observers during the sorting operation itself, in the same time the
weakness of other committees presidents was noticed from the public prosecution and
the State Judicial Department and the administrative prosecution, whether regarding
their ability to control committees, or their commitment to rules, laws, impartiality
and fairness.
All of our observers noticed the wide-ranging use – from the National Party candidate
supporters – to the country capabilities and in particular the use of the general
vehicles and vehicles belonging to governmental companies, corporations and
administrations in collective transfer of the working electors in the organizations and
companies and the governmental authorities to their election headquarters and the
assurance of their vote for the party candidate. And threatening those who won’t vote
for the National Party candidate.
Most of the preliminary results pin-pointed the advance of the National Party
candidate on the rest of the candidates, Tomorrow's Party (El Ghad) candidate
follows him, then the Wafd Party candidate, taking into consideration the way of
voting and violations that took place during the election process whether with the
collective vote or with the addition of cards in favor of the National Party candidate
which may make the difference in the ratios a lot higher than the true difference.