Six voting centres established for Iraqis in Egypt

By Mohammed Mahmoud in Cairo
For Al-Shorfa.com
2010-03-03

[AMRO MARAGHI/AFP/Getty Images] Officials say that between 20,000 and 25,000 Iraqis living in Egypt will be eligible to vote in the election.

Having gathered all the necessary information regarding the voting centres closest to his home in Nasr City, Cairo, Saif Abu Mahmoud started calling his Iraqi friends and neighbours in Egypt to share with them information and instructions for Sunday's Iraqi parliamentary elections.

Abu Mahmoud told Al-Shorfa that "he has made arrangements with some of his friends and family to take next Sunday off and spend it in a recreational park after casting their votes for the Iraqi Coalition list."

According to statistics obtained by Al-Shorfa from the Iraqi Electoral Commission in Cairo, the number of Iraqis residing in Egypt varies between 40,000 and 50,000, almost half of whom are eligible to vote in the upcoming elections.

The Iraqi community in Cairo is concentrated in the neighbourhoods of Nasr City and Rehab City, northeast of the capital; the Giza Governorate along the streets of Al-Haram and Faisal; the 6th of October Governorate, in the city of El-Mansoura northeast of the Delta; and the Governorate of Alexandria.

Ibrahim Al-Sharif Abu Bilal, spokesman of the Independent High Electoral Commission office in Cairo, told Al-Shorfa that the office has set up six main election centres in Egypt with 37 ballot boxes.

"The office of the Commission in Egypt has a staff of 300 employees that will administer the electoral process in a fair and impartial way. All of them have received training in the logistical aspects of the election stations," said Abu Bilal. "They have been selected based on specific criteria, including that they should be qualified, experienced and independent, and not work for governmental or sovereign entities."

According to Abu Bilal, extensive meetings were held in recent days at the Commission in order to facilitate the task of the observers when monitoring the election process. They have been categorised into local observers from civil society groups, observers from the Arab League, and international observers.

"Since the office began its work, we have had two observers from the United Nations monitoring the registration process and the preparations in order to ensure fairness and transparency," he said. "They are working with us on a daily basis and we are constantly making visits to the six election centres."

The Committee has approved 11 representatives from different Iraqi political groups to monitor the electoral process and the preparations for registration, and to report any breaches by Commission officials.

Abu Bilal added that the preparations so far focused on a number of points, including helping Iraqis in Egypt with voter registration, the registration of observers, organising three press conferences, and co-ordinating with the authorities in Cairo about the logistics of setting up the committees.

According to observers in Cairo, most Iraqis living in Egypt will cast their votes in favour of the Iraqiya List headed by former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.

Political analyst Ahmed Alabiyya said that "the visit to Cairo last week by the Iraqi Vice President and candidate for the Iraqiya List, Tareq al-Hashemi, has had a noticeable impact on the Iraqi community in Egypt."

He told Al-Shorfa that "most members of the Iraqi community in Egypt are Sunni, and they include a great number of Iraqi officers. This is why al-Hashemi’s visit has had a positive response, and a majority of votes could go to the Iraqiya List."

He added that "more than 900 people, most of whom were ex-officers in the Iraqi Army, attended the public gathering organised by al-Hashemi at a hotel in Cairo. They made several requests to him, hoping that he would respond to them when he returns to Iraq."

Al-Hashemi visited Cairo on February 24th and met with Egyptian officials. He also organised a public gathering for the Iraqi community living in Cairo where he stated that the Iraqi elections are the key to saving the "wounded nation of Iraq", and he asked Iraqis in Egypt to vote for a better future for Iraq.

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