Elections in Egypt: State of Permanent Emergency Incompatible with Free and Fair Vote

On June 20 security officers arrested at least 55 protesters in Cairo, detaining them for up to four hours before releasing them.

Human Rights Watch observed security officials beating, dispersing, and arresting scores of people, including protesters, journalists, and bystanders. Security officials drove the detainees around for hours and then released them on highways outside of Cairo. In the past six weeks authorities have clamped down on media freedoms, one area where there had been measurable liberalization in recent years. Badawi heads a political party, Al Wafd, which was then preparing to field candidates for the parliamentary elections. Talk shows on private satellite television channels hosted by high-profile media personalities such as Eissa and Amr Adieb were extremely popular in Egypt.

On October 11 the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority announced a new requirement for organizations that send SMS messages to subscribers to secure prior permission from the Ministry of Information and the Supreme Press Council. On October 13 the government issued regulations effectively bringing all live broadcasts by private companies under control of state television, and on November 1 issued directives requiring prior permission for satellite television uplinks. On April 2 state security officers arrested Ahmad Mehni, publisher of El Baradei and the Dream of a Green Revolution, and detained him for two days before releasing him without charge.

The following day officers arrested Ahmad Eid, also an El Baradei activist, and held him incommunicado for a day. Freedom of assembly and freedom of expression are prerequisites to free and fair elections. Their strong showing prompted a renewed government clampdown on the organization.

Elections in Egypt typically involve widespread arrests of Muslim Brotherhood members in the run up to voting day. Leading up to the elections of November Muslim Brotherhood lawyers said that security forces had arrested around 1, members of the organization over a period of several months. This year was hardly different. Earlier in the year, in the six weeks before the Shura elections, security officers arrested at least Brotherhood members in connection with campaigning, mainly for putting up posters for candidates.

The Muslim Brotherhood has never sought to register as a political party. Under international law, freedom of expression and association can be limited only on narrowly defined grounds of public order. Any restriction must be prescribed by law, be for a legitimate purpose, and be the least restrictive measure possible to meet that purpose.

A ban on an organization solely because of the political positions it holds, and the fact that it uses a religious framework or espouses religious principles, is not a legitimate reason to limit freedom of association and expression under international human rights law. A government may legitimately ban a party that uses or promotes violence, but it must meet that high standard of factual proof. In addition, it may detain individuals responsible for specific criminal acts, but not for mere membership in, or support for, a political organization that the government has decided to outlaw.

It guarantees citizens, in article 25, the right to take part in the conduct of public affairs, either directly or through freely chosen representatives, and the right to vote and to be elected in periodic and fair elections. These rights may not be denied on the basis of race, religion, or gender, among other distinctions. During elections season in Egypt, political activism typically becomes focused and opposition parties and movements organize protests and meetings in which they call for free elections and structural reforms.

Security officials view these activities with suspicion and frequently resort to arbitrary arrests and excessive use of force to disperse rallies and demonstrations. In one incident on May 25, , security agents and thugs apparently working on their behalf attacked protestors at a demonstration against proposed constitutional amendments to limit judicial supervision of elections, further restrict who can run for president, and abrogate constitutional civil liberties protections in cases involving terrorism charges. In some cases documented during the parliamentary elections, security officials barred access to polling stations; in other cases violence erupted between NDP supporters and opposition candidates, usually from the Muslim Brotherhood.

At least 12 people died as a result of violence during the elections, which were held in three rounds in November and December. In the aftermath of the elections, several senior judges publicly criticized election irregularities.

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Government moves to discipline the judges prompted public demonstrations on their behalf. Over the course of several days, police arrested at least 51 persons protesting the lack of judicial independence and the fraud and intimidation associated with the elections.

Elections in Egypt

Authorities, under provisions of the Emergency Law, referred the detained protesters to the State Security Prosecutor on charges of participating in a gathering of more than five people, insulting the president, and disseminating propaganda and malicious rumors. Plainclothes security officers also attacked journalists attempting to cover the events.

In , 12 people were killed and were injured in election-related violence, compared to 8 killed and 64 injured in Under the ICCPR, Egypt has a general obligation to provide an effective remedy to all those whose rights have been violated. Egypt is also obliged under international law to ensure an environment where voters feel secure and able to make voting choices freely.

Egyptian citizens perceive the judiciary in Egypt as more independent politically than any other official institution. The NCHR recommended that the number of judges supervising polling stations be significantly increased. On September 29, Mufid Shehab, minister for parliamentary and legislative affairs, told a seminar audience that:. Perhaps the most controversial constitutional amendment introduced in was to article 88, which drastically reduced judicial supervision. The background to the constitutional requirement for judicial supervision is instructive. Article 88, prior to its amendment, read: In both the and parliamentary elections, members of the judiciary had only supervised principal polling stations, while civil servants supervised auxiliary stations.

In the parliamentary elections polling was held on three separate days: November 9 and 20 and December 1, in order to comply with the court ruling, given the limited number of judges. The government at that time also insisted, over the objection of many judges, that prosecutors and other judicial officers could serve as poll supervisors. On November 24, , Al-Masry al-Youm published a letter from Noha al-Zeiny, a judge who had supervised voting in a Damanhour constituency.

Yet at the end of the day, the committee in charge of announcing the results in that constituency declared al-Fikki the winner. Al-Zeiny noted the presence of a state security officer and criticized the fact that one of the judges chairing the committee also held a government post. In response to her public letter, judges signed a statement confirming that the violations she had described were common in many constituencies.

These violations include vote-buying, voter intimidation, illegal campaigning, ballot-stuffing, counting irregularities, and inaccuracies with voter lists. The Egyptian Association for Community Participation Enhancement, a human rights organization that specializes in election monitoring, has observed parliamentary and municipal elections since In May , the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights EOHR brought a case before the administrative court against the High Elections Commission for approving only 20 out of the permits the group requested to observe the Shura elections.

On the day before the Shura elections took place, when it became clear that the High Elections Commission would not issue any last-minute permits, the Forum of Independent Human Rights organizations, a coalition of independent human rights NGOs, issued a statement:. In its leaked report on the Shura elections, the NCHR also criticized the role of the High Elections Commission for refusing to issue 3, of the 4, monitoring permits requested.

As of November 22, the coalition including the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights has not received a response from the HEC to its request for monitoring permits nor has the coalition including the Egyptian Association for Community Participation Enhancement received a response to its requested permits. Repeated attempts by the organizations to contact the HEC have failed.

There should be independent scrutiny of the voting and counting process and access to judicial review or other equivalent process so that electors have confidence in the security of the ballot and the counting of the votes. If the PPC determines that an already-recognized party has violated any of these principles, the chair may request that the appropriate body in the Supreme Administrative Court dissolve a party, liquidate its funds, and determine which other party will absorb its members, elected officials, and assets.

The head of the Shura Council, who chairs the PPC, serves ex-officio and is not directly appointed by the president, but he can hardly be considered independent, since the president appoints one-third of the Shura Council directly and the NDP dominates the rest of the body, with the result that the chair of the PPC is invariably a leading member of the ruling party. Elections in a State of Emergency II.

State of Permanent Emergency Incompatible with Free and Fair Vote | HRW

Insufficient Independent Oversight V. Stifling Political Parties VI. Twitter Facebook Most Viewed. Join Our Maillist Subscribe. Can the West be relied on to support democracy and basic human rights in the Arab World? Human Rights Report Egypt's Permanent State of Emergency Incompatible with Free and Fair Vote In light of the mass and unjust arbitrary arrests in the lead to the elections, monopolizing of media and evident intimidation measures against opposition a page report by human rights titled, "Elections in Egypt, State of Permanent Emergency Incompatible with Free and Fair Vote, was issued.

Thursday, November 25, Dr Morsy to al-Arabiya: Journalists and Media Workers: The Janus-like nature of Arab elections. Monitors Record Breaches Prior to Elections. Brotherhood Enters Elections in a Weakened State.

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