Gov't refutes rights groups' report of 8 election-related deaths

A Port Said candidate's supporters dance in the streets. Port Said saw the highest number of arrests, up to 100, according to rights groups. (Daily News Egypt Photo/Hassan Ibrahim)

By Tamim Elyan /Special to Daily News Egypt November 28, 2010, 6:18 pm

CAIRO: Human rights groups reported Sunday the deaths of eight people during the People's Assembly (PA) elections, as well as 45 clashes and 180 total arrests by security forces. But the Ministry of Information and the Supreme Electoral Commission said that no one died in connection with the elections. According to the Nadim Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence, the eight deaths occurred in Omraneya (Giza), Al-Raml (Alexandria), Farkous, Wadi Notroun, Menouf, and Al-Arish over stabbings and health emergencies. Clashes were reported in Suez, Hamoul, Beni Suef, Sohag, Abdeen, and involved the use of knives between thugs and candidates’ supporters, while Qena saw gun shootouts occur between supporters of rival candidates. Port Said witnessed 100 arrests, the largest number out of all of Egypt's constituencies. An overwhelming majority of those detained were allegedly supporters of Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated independent candidate Akram Al-Shaer. “There might be individual incidents, but the [National Democratic Party (NDP)] has given clear instructions to stay away from violence and not [adopt any approaches] that violate the electoral process,” said Mohamed Kamal, the NDP’s secretary of political education and training and the head of the NDP’s youth committee. A total of 5,064 candidates competed for 508 PA seats. Of the 508, 444 are regular PA seats elected from 222 districts, while the 64 seats reserved for women only under the women's quota will be elected from 32 constituencies. Seventy-six civil society organizations applied to observe the PA elections, and a total of over 6,000 independent observers have been recognized, the Ministry of Information said in a statement. “We noticed low turnout rates and calmness for a long period at the beginning of the day; however, candidates’ representatives were denied access to facilitate vote rigging," said Ahmed Sameeh, head of Al Andalus Institute for Tolerance and Anti-violence Studies and member of the Egyptian Coalition for Monitoring Elections. “Notably, police didn't resort to violence, but managed the electoral process haphazardly, as some requested national IDs for voters to cast their votes while others demanded voting cards,” he added. According to Sameeh, NGOs were denied access to voting stations but managed to get in “by their own means.” The results are set to be announced on Monday. The Brotherhood and various opposition parties’ candidates claimed severe fraud in many constituencies, as their representatives were denied access to voting stations or had their authorizations torn, while others accused poll stations’ supervisors of rigging votes. The Supreme Electoral Commission (SEC) decided to invalidate compromised ballot boxes in District 7, which encompasses Kafr El-Dadwar in Beheira governorate. At the Zogag School and the Nashew El-Bahary voting centers, polling stations 177, 178, and 179 were attacked by candidate supporters, and the ballot boxes were destroyed, the SEC said in a statement. In a separate incident at the Sayed Sarhan School voting center in the Kom El-Baraka area, ballots were stolen from polling stations 213, 214, 215, 216, 217, 218 and 219. Forty-three of the perpetrators were arrested by the police and charges were filed with the Prosecutor General. A number of candidates, like Hamden Sabahy in Al-Hamoul district and the Brotherhood’s Mahmoud Amer in Ousim in the Sixth of October district, withdrew from the elections due to “heavy security violations and a lack of fairness.” “Sabahy’s allegations [are nothing but] lies,” Ahmed Ezz, NDP secretary for organizational affairs, stated at an ad hoc press conference in response to a reporter. Ezz said that Sabahy pulled out of Al-Hamoul and Al-Borolos constituencies because he felt that he was going to lose to NDP candidate Essam Abdel-Ghaffar. Ezz denied Sabahy’s allegations that his representatives were denied entry into the polling stations and that Abdel-Ghaffar’s supporters attacked them. Ezz also accused Sabahy’s supporters of blocking the highway in Al-Borolos, and setting tires on fire. The ruling NDP, led by President Hosni Mubarak, is virtually assured of a sweeping victory. The party controlled nearly 70 percent of the outgoing, 454-seat parliament elected in 2005, and is likely to increase its majority in this year's election. Candidates of the Brotherhood, Egypt's most organized opposition force despite being officially banned by the Egyptian government, usually run in elections as independents. Holding 20 percent of the seats in the outgoing legislature, the Brotherhood is aiming to win 30 percent of the seats in the new upcoming chamber despite having been subjected to a fierce government crackdown on candidates and their supporters since the group officially announced its participation in the 2010 PA elections. -Additional reporting by Marwa Al-A'sar