Elections in Egypt: Key Challenges for Credible and Competitive Elections

[Hombre de Maiz]

Elections in Egypt
Key Challenges for Credible and Competitive Elections
IFES Briefing Paper, February 2011

...
Conclusions and Priorities for Reform
Without major changes, public confidence in the integrity of Egypt’s electoral process will remain low and elected bodies will lack the democratic legitimacy they need to act as representatives of the people. It is possible that one of the legacies of the current unrest will be a new climate in which there is the political will to take some significant steps towards a credible and competitive electoral process. The presidential elections in 2011 will be the first major test of that political will, although a constitutional referendum and statutory amendments beforehand will provide some useful indicators. The overriding objective should be to increase public confidence in the integrity of the electoral process. That requires coordinated action on several fronts, including:

• Ending the current emergency law to provide for, amongst other things, greater freedom of assembly
• Removing the ban on religiously-based political parties
• Reintroducing independent judicial or similar supervision of the electoral process at the ballot box level
• Increasing the independence, impartiality, openness and transparency of the PEC, HEC, and PPC
• Allowing the decisions of the PEC to be appealed to the courts
• Ensuring that the MoI and the security forces are clearly accountable to the PEC and HEC in carrying out
their electoral responsibilities
• Ensuring that the PEC and HEC enforce the election laws, particularly provisions prohibiting intimidation
of voters and candidates
• Establishing timely and effective procedures for receiving and determining electoral complaints and
resolving electoral disputes
• Improving the voter registration system, particularly removing voter registration offices from police
stations
• Ensuring compliance with election finance laws, especially prohibitions on the use of State resources in
election campaigns
• Allowing unfettered domestic and international observation of elections

Although it is unrealistic to expect all these goals will be completely achieved at the 2011 presidential election, it is vital that there is demonstrable progress to ensure a more competitive and open campaign process, robust participation by an informed electorate, and administration and oversight of the electoral process by an electoral authority that is independent, transparent, and accountable. Only with real progress in these areas will Egypt be able to create an enabling environment for credible elections which will earn the confidence and participation of Egyptian voters and citizens, and in the process, move it forward along a path of meaningful political reform.

Read the entire report here.

[Kratos]

Lets hope, the newly elected governments for future egypts, WILL NOT BE contaminated by Benjamin Franklin's virus....otherwise, "y'all will witness the other version of Indonesia Post Suharto era....

[Davita]

[QUOTE=Kratos;138775]Lets hope, the newly elected governments for future egypts, QUOTE]

Come on Kratos...show some respect....the country is called Egypt and its citizens are called Egyptians.

Your term sounds like some ex-Brit 'Mat Salleh' They used the term 'Gippos'.

The world has moved away from those times and terms.

[Kratos]

Hey, I did not say Gypsies....

[Davita]

Hey, I did not say Gypsies....

True...you didn't...and I understand your humor.

But Gypsy is not derogatory...my own heritage is from a long line of Pygmies...and we do not use derogitary terms...indeed, we respect Egyptians and Gypsies and Aussies and Yanks.

But the Brit (not so funny) expressions of egypts or gippos do not comply.