U.S. group scales back plan to monitor Egypt election

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In this Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2015 photo, Amr Mekky, left, and Ashraf Thabet, parliamentary candidates of the Al-Nour Party, greet their supporters during a campaign rally in Alexandria, a stronghold of the ultraconservative Salafis, Egypt. The Al-Nour Party, ultraconservative Muslims who supported the army's overthrow of an Islamist president in 2013, are aiming for the political center to gain votes, trying to appear more open while glossing over their role in suppressing the Islamists. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)
In this Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2015 photo, Amr Mekky, left, and Ashraf Thabet, parliamentary candidates of the Al-Nour Party, greet their supporters during a campaign rally in Alexandria, a stronghold of the ultraconservative Salafis, Egypt. The Al-Nour Party, ultraconservative Muslims who supported the army’s overthrow of an Islamist president in 2013, are aiming for the political center to gain votes, trying to appear more open while glossing over their role in suppressing the Islamists. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)
Democracy International said on Friday it would monitor Egypt’s parliamentary elections but has scaled back its plans after having trouble getting visas for all its staff.

Egyptians will begin voting on Sunday in long-awaited elections, the final step in a process that aimed to put the country back on a democratic course but which critics say has been undermined by state repression.

The voting will take place over two rounds on Oct 18-19 and Nov 22-23, with two sets of run-offs in constituencies where no clear winner has emerged.

Democracy International has been accredited by Egypt’s High Election Commission to observe the polls but the U.S. based group said in a statement that “some visas for accredited core team members and short-term observers have not been issued and most visas have not been issued for the duration necessary to observe the entire election process.”

It said that without the necessary and appropriate visas for its accredited observers it would not be able to conduct the comprehensive observation it originally expected to carry out.

Egypt’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Independent monitoring of Egypt’s parliamentary election is expected to be limited because of pressure from the government on non-governmental organizations and civil society groups.

The Carter Center, for example, closed its Egypt office a year ago and said at the time it would not be monitoring future polls as the political space had narrowed to the extent that elections could not advance a genuine democratic transition.

Egypt has been without a parliament since June 2012 when a court dissolved the democratically elected main chamber, then dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood, reversing a major accomplishment of the 2011 uprising that ended Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year rule.

As army chief, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ousted elected President Mohamed Mursi of the Brotherhood the following year, banning Egypt’s oldest Islamist movement, and jailing thousands of its members alongside the youth activists at the forefront of the 2011 revolt. Sisi went on to win a presidential vote in June last year.

Democracy International monitored that election comprehensively and found that “disregard for Egyptians’ rights and freedoms prevented a genuine, democratic presidential election.”

The Brotherhood is banned and not taking part in the latest polls and smaller opposition parties are struggling to make their voices heard.

REUTERS

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17 responses to “U.S. group scales back plan to monitor Egypt election”

  1. 5thDrawer Avatar

    ‘We can’t monitor these people any more … did the last time, and look what happened anyway. TOO weird. !!’

    1. us can not be a judge other..its condone many war crimes and abuse of power.They are also slaves to Zion Jews..slaves cannot be a judge or monitor.

      1. nagy_michael2 Avatar
        nagy_michael2

        So how come ISIS and Al Nusra your beloved gangs are not fighting Zion(Israel).. they actually getting medical treatment there? does that make them a tool of Zion? and if so why do you keep supporting them?

        1. Ask them .. don,t ask me.khah..khah..khah.

          1. nagy_michael2 Avatar
            nagy_michael2

            I am asking you why do you follow them? you are the one who is supporting them? yet they don’t seem to shoot a bullet toward Israel or Zionist.. why are you supporting them
            Why do you sympathize with Zionist Sympathizers? that makes a traitor and supporter of Zion then? Khah Khah Khah. shame on you

          2. If you can not ask Isis, ask your self.

          3. nagy_michael2 Avatar
            nagy_michael2

            I am asking why do you follow ISIS since they don’t fight against the Zionist? why do you keep evading the question? Oh Don’t worry on my next visit to Karbala I will ask the Caliph himself when i have in the trunk of my car..

          4. Karbala??
            Did you get Shiite and Sunni caliphs confused?
            “The city, best known as the location of the Battle of Karbala (680), is the holiest city for Shia Muslims after Mecca, Medina and the noble sanctuary in Jerusalem.”
            Baghdadi is not in Karbala

          5. nagy_michael2 Avatar
            nagy_michael2

            I was just joking. and did you also believe that i would even go to Iraq?
            I am asking Zabada since he points all the destruction of the world on Zionism yet ISIS and AL Nusra had not fire a bullet there. He supports ISIS? Why i was asking since he is so much anti Israelis..

          6. I guess they would attack Israel after Assad was gone.

        2. 5thDrawer Avatar

          They all WANT the American Dollar. ‘There’s Gold in them thar hills.’… etc,etc.
          A few still search for Solomon’s Mines, of course …. ;-)))

      2. 5thDrawer Avatar

        And those books tell you that many people in history cause grief for other people in history.
        It’s an ‘Equal Opportunity’ sort of thing … All Tribes have done it. Why involve a God at all?
        Do you assume HE/SHE – with the ‘one-day’ or ‘6-days’ of work = Aeons of ‘human-time’ – is still ‘resting’ on the seventh?? Is that the problem??

        1. They are praying to God,,,chanting God,s name even in peace times.. they are not going to forget God even in suffer times,and it is well behave..Russian Christian also wearing cross on their neck…even in war times.You can not left your God behind in war times..in peace times,,and at any situation.My religious teacher tell me so.Even so..in the war ,religion is not a subject..it is about to control Arab,s oil.Arabs eventually are not to chanting oil name in war.It is really bad .

          1. 5thDrawer Avatar

            Yes, Zabada … I’d agree. And I think that ‘Imagination’ has failed us. Or it has been driven down too much and too often. When it’s not allowed to ‘flow’ naturally, it becomes impossible to imagine Consequences Of An Action.
            But yes, there are many people who imagine only ONE thing – that they are ‘The Power’.
            And while ‘On Top’, can never imagine being in the bottom shoes.
            Apparently Saddam Hussein was a little ‘shook up’, when he experienced hiding in a hole in the ground to stay alive. I think his mind never quite recovered from the shock of finding a reality he had never imagined.
            Qadaffi didn’t get much time to even be thinking about it.
            And it seems that ISIS – one way or another – doesn’t give anyone a chance to make a final statement about what they imagined should be, VS what is reality. So no ‘truths’ are coming out there … except the finality of Life .. which is death.

          2. why did you choose those characters to illustrate your point?

          3. Patience2 Avatar

            A group of ‘losers’, maybe??

          4. 5thDrawer Avatar

            I think, after Mussolini, the ‘most surprised’ faces we ever got ‘on record’. ;-))
            Although I can’t say there was one more battered …

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