Waging Peace: Egypt
 
Monitoring Elections

2011-2012 Elections

People's Assembly Elections
The Center supports the right of all Egyptians to freely elect their representatives in a peaceful and tolerant environment.

The Carter Center arrived in Egypt in May 2011 to conduct an international election witnessing mission for Egypt's People's Assembly (lower house) elections. The Center was accredited by the Supreme Judicial Commission for Elections (SJCE) in November 2011 and deployed 40 witnesses from 24 countries to all of Egypt's 27 governorates.  Across the three phases of voting from November 2011-January 2012, these witnesses assessed and observed the administrative preparations, campaigning, voting and counting, and complaints processes.  Carter Center witnesses met with government officials, political parties and candidates, and religious leaders as well as representatives of civil society, academia, and media.

Egypt's People's Assembly elections enjoyed broad participation from voters and were a progressive step toward a democratic transition. While there were shortcomings in the legal framework, campaign violations, and weaknesses in the administration of the elections, the results appeared to be a broadly accurate expression of the will of the voters. The People's Assembly was in session for less than five months when Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court ruled to dissolve the body in June 2012, citing a provision in the electoral law that allowed political party members to run for seats against independent candidates. An appeal of the court's ruling, which would determine if and when new elections would be held, is still pending.

Shura Council Elections
In January 2012, The Center deployed 30 witnesses representing 19 nationalities to 21 of Egypt's 27 governorates for the Shura Council (upper house) elections. Across both phases of voting, these witnesses assessed and observed the administrative preparations, campaigning, voting, and counting, including the complaints and appeals processes.

The Center found the election characterized by a lack of interest, in contrast to the preceding People's Assembly election that captivated national and international attention.  Uncertainty about the value and role of the Shura Council in conjunction with the pace and direction of the transition as a whole, contributed to the low level of engagement by voters, candidates, political parties, media, and civil society organizations.  In this environment, many of the same technical and operational shortcomings witnessed by the Carter Center mission during the People's Assembly election were again observed in the Shura Council election. While the SJCE introduced some welcome technical improvements to the electoral process, the atmosphere in which they were implemented and the associated low voter turnout made it difficult to assess their value.  As such, while the election results appear to reflect the will of the voters that participated, the low level of voter turnout underscores the political uncertainties that surround Egypt's ongoing transition.

The Carter Center's witnessing mission detailed other recommendations and findings in its preliminary report on the Shura Council election.

Presidential Election
Egypt's first presidential election in the post-Mubarak era marked the first time in Egypt's history that the head of state was directly elected by the people in a competitive election.

The Carter Center election witnessing mission was accredited in Egypt by the Presidential Election Commission (PEC) on May 3, 2012. Accreditation badges, necessary for witnesses to observe the process, were only provided on May 16, less than seven days before the election.

In addition to the late accreditation that prevented assessment of critical pre-election phases including voter registration and campaigning, several additional restrictions were imposed on election witnesses by Egypt's electoral authorities, including a provision that witnessing missions could not issue statements prior to polling, a 30-minute time restriction on witnesses' presence inside polling stations, and the prohibition of witnessing the final aggregation of the results. As a result of the restrictions, The Carter Center was only able to conduct a limited mission focusing on voting, counting, and vote tabulation and unable to reach a conclusion about the process as a whole. The Center's limited mission found that the polling process was peaceful and orderly and marked by a sense of hope in Egypt's struggle for democracy. The Center noted an important new measure to promote transparency - counting at the polling station in the presence of candidate agents and witnesses. At the same time, the Center also found that election authorities prohibited access to the final aggregation of national results, undermining the overall transparency of the process.

The political context surrounding the vote created significant cause for concern and cast uncertainty over the significance of the election itself. Of particular concern was the decision to dissolve the democratically-elected parliament, the return of elements of martial law on the eve of the runoff in June, and most troubling, the constitutional addendum issued by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), as Egyptians' presidential votes were being counted.  Through this declaration, the SCAF carved out a continuing, dominant role within the Egyptian government, appropriating vast additional powers until a new constitution is approved, including executive and legislative authority, as well as an inappropriate role in the constitutional drafting process itself. These issues call into question whether a truly democratic transition is still taking place in Egypt.

The Carter Center mission for the first round was led by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and included 102 witnesses from 35 countries who visited 909 polling stations in 25 governorates to follow voting, counting, and tabulation. The Center's witnesses continud to assess the conclusion of the vote tabulation and remained in Egypt to follow campaigning for the runoff election.

The Center's mission for the second round of the presidential election was led by Abdel Karim Al-Eryani, former prime minister of Yemen, Marwan Muasher, former foreign minister of Jordan, and Jason Carter, state senator of Georgia, and included over 90 witnesses from 36 countries. Witnesses made nearly 1,000 visits to polling stations in 25 governorates to follow voting, counting, and tabulation

Read about the main findings from the presidential witnessing mission.