Saturday
Jul022005
Presidential Elections Date Set
By 
Josh Stacher | Egypt
Josh Stacher | Egypt
Although the only candidates that have declared their intentions to run for Egypt's presidency are Ayman Nor and Talat Sadat, the government finally, finally, finally set a date for the presidential elections.
Zakariya Azmy, the presidential office's chief-of-staff, said that those elections will be on 7 September 2005 (which is a Wednesday).
Invest in mace now while it is cheap should you wish to venture out of your homes that day.
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Hosni Mubarak is expected to declare his candidancy soon (the deadline is 31st of July).
The rumor is that he is waiting for the presidential elections law, participation law, and parties law to pass in parliament and be declared constitutional by the Supreme Constitutional Court.
Zakariya Azmy, the presidential office's chief-of-staff, said that those elections will be on 7 September 2005 (which is a Wednesday).
Invest in mace now while it is cheap should you wish to venture out of your homes that day.
________________
Hosni Mubarak is expected to declare his candidancy soon (the deadline is 31st of July).
The rumor is that he is waiting for the presidential elections law, participation law, and parties law to pass in parliament and be declared constitutional by the Supreme Constitutional Court.
Reader Comments (1)
Any word on the judges' latest position on supervising elections, and on whether the US has made any concrete proposals regarding election monitoring? I just saw the following story on BBC, didn't see yesterday's masri al yom:
Egyptian judges allege vote fraud
Judges in Egypt say May's referendum on constitutional reform was marred by widespread fraud.
The referendum on whether to allow rival candidates to contest the presidency in September was approved by more than 80% of voters.
The judges said turnout in the booths they oversaw was very low but in government-supervised booths it was recorded at 100% in some cases.
The judges threatened to refuse to supervise September's polls.
An elected body representing Egypt's judiciary said the judges would only take part if they were allowed to oversee all stages of the electoral process.
It said the overall turnout for the referendum was far lower than the government figure of 53%.
'Constraints'
Six opposition parties, including the Muslim Brotherhood, had called for a boycott of the referendum.
When asked by judges about their interpretation of these unrealistic turnout figures, some civil servants remained silent and others said they had received instructions [from police]
Judges' report
They said the amendments contained too many constraints for anyone to challenge President Hosni Mubarak and his ruling National Democratic Party.
One judge, Tariq Tawil, told the BBC there was photographic evidence fraud had been committed.
He said judges had taken pictures of bundles of ballots tied up with string that were found in some boxes.
The judges have compiled a nine-page report, some of which was published in Saturday's Al-Masri al-Yom newspaper.
"During the counting, one judge noticed that a civil servant was cancelling many ballots. When asked what he was doing, he answered that he was cancelling all the no ballots," the report said.
The judges had been able to supervise only about 5% of more than 50,000 polling stations.
May's vote was marred by clashes, including the beating of opposition protesters by government agents and supporters.
Elections in Egypt generally suffer voter apathy bred by decades of authoritarian rule and ballot rigging, analysts say.
President Mubarak, who has ruled Egypt for almost 25 years, is widely expected to seek another term in office.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/4644503.stm