By Mariam Fam
Egypt entered a second day of parliamentary voting after crowds gathered to cast ballots in the country’s first free election after the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak.
Lines of people snaked through the streets of Cairo, Alexandria and other cities after dark yesterday as electoral authorities ordered polling stations to be kept open late following reports of logistical problems. They reopened at 8 a.m. today, and preliminary results may be announced tomorrow. The head of the election commission, Abdel Moez Ibrahim, said the number of people trying to cast ballots had been “beyond expectations.” There were no reports of serious violence.
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“The turnout is very high,” said Ghada Shahbender, 49, a member of the Board of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, part of an alliance of civil society groups that sent out thousands of monitors. “People believe they can make a difference. They feel empowered. They’re out voting because they feel that their votes count.”
The run-up to the three-stage poll, which ends in January, was overshadowed by clashes that have killed 43 people in the past week. Protesters accuse the ruling generals of stifling freedoms while failing to restore security or revive an economy growing at the slowest pace in more than a decade. Thousands have gathered in Cairo’s Tahrir Square for the past 10 days demanding that the generals step down. The army says it won’t cede power before presidential elections due by the end of June.
‘Back to Tahrir’
“Many people went and voted and went back to Tahrir,” said Shahbender, who has taken part in the recent protests in the plaza. “It’s thanks to the Tahrir movement that people have regained confidence in themselves and their power.”
The country’s benchmark EGX 30 stock index (EGX30) jumped 5.1 percent at 11:10 a.m. local time today, as the high turnout and absence of violence boosted expectations that the vote will help ease tensions and smooth the transition to democratic rule. The exchange was closed yesterday for the first day of voting.
Voting for the lower house of parliament in the Arab world’s most populous country will take place in stages, corresponding to three sets of governorates. The first stage lasts for two days and initial results may be published tomorrow. Final results are due by Jan. 13. The Freedom and Justice Party, set up by Egypt’s once-banned Muslim Brotherhood, is expected to emerge as one of the largest blocs in the parliament.
‘We’ll Have Chaos’
In the Bassatin neighborhood of Cairo late yesterday, an argument between two women about to cast ballots encapsulated the nationwide debate about the future role of the army in Egyptian political life.
“What good has come out of the military council since the revolution?” said Mona Mohamed Ahmed, a 31-year-old housewife who said she would vote for the secular Wafd Party. “To this day we are living in fear and have no security.”
“What kind of country will we have if the military council left now?” said Mona Rida, 35, a lawyer who supports the Freedom and Justice Party. “There will be no order, we’ll have chaos.”
“We already live in chaos,” replied Ahmed.
The unrest in Egypt has hurt the economy, as tourists have shunned the country and industrial production has been hit by strikes. Gross domestic product grew 1.8 percent in the fiscal year through June, the slowest in at least a decade.
The country’s credit rating was cut one level to B+, four steps below investment grade, atStandard & Poor’s on Nov. 24. The yield on dollar bonds due April 2020 climbed 82 basis points last week to 6.97 percent, the highest since January. The EGX 30 is down 44 percent this year.
New Cabinet
The latest wave of protests and fighting prompted the government’s resignation, and the generals last week appointed Kamal el-Ganzouri as prime minister. El-Ganzouri said that he may form a new Cabinet by the end of the week.
The Muslim Brotherhood has stayed away from most recent protests to focus on canvassing. Founded in 1928, the group’s organizational skills, support networks and name-recognition may help give it an edge over the secular youth who were at the forefront of the leaderless anti-Mubarak revolt.
Islamist groups have already won elections in Morocco and Tunisia, where the region’s wave of uprisings began a year ago. This week’s vote will provide the first real gauge of the popularity of the Brotherhood and Egypt’s other political parties.
‘Couch Party’
At the polling station in the Bab el-Sharia neighborhood of Cairo, Kamel El Sayed, a retired soldier, said he planned to vote for the Brotherhood’s party. “It’s time we had justice,” he said. “We were all oppressed under the former regime. The most important thing is for security to be restored.”
Billionaire Naguib Sawiris, a member of Egypt’s Coptic Christian minority and co-founder of the secular Free Egyptians Party, warned last night that “the most dangerous thing for Egypt is the issue of religious polarization, the attempt to use religion in elections, be it from the Muslim Brotherhood or from the Church.”
Sawiris, speaking in an interview on Al Arabiya television, also said that the high turnout showed the engagement of the so- called “couch party” — Egyptians who haven’t played an active role in this year’s protests — in the election. “Most of them are not for a religious state,” he said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Mariam Fam in Cairo atmfam1.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden atbarden
