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Press Statement (1)
Results of the Monitoring of the Public Referendum over the Constitutional Amendments
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26/3/2007
EOHR's observers monitored the public referendum over the constitutional amendments taking place on the 26th March 2007. The monitoring process resulted to a group of violations. According to reports received by EOHR's operations center, the most sever violations were; low participation in voting in some governorates such as Giza, Alexandria and Assiut, mass voting, automatic marking of the balloting cards in favor of passing the amendments, banners were seen inside the balloting stations containing slogans in favor of passing the amendments. The following are the violations monitored in different governorates:
Giza:
EOHR observers witnessed low participation in Nagah School at Giza in constituencies number 9,11 and 12. The number of voters averaged between one to ten votes only. In Embaba Secondary School, banners supporting the amendments were seen saying "Yes for the Constitution".
Cairo:
EOHR observers witnessed mass voting taking place when 6 public buses were spotted in front of Mohamed Farid Sarhan constituency in Helwan carrying public employees who were carrying banners supporting the amendments. The numbers of these buses were 92389, 92266, 90301 and mini-bus number 76576.
Alexandria:
EOHR observers witnessed low participation in the Kabbary constituency in balloting stations number 48, 49, 50 and 51 where there were zero votes.
Demiatta:
Sarwo balloting station at Zarka constituency witnessed mass forging of the voting cards, when employees in the local district marked the balloting cards as "Yes", while the lists had only one signature of a voter.
Gharbia:
EOHR observers witnessed banners supporting the amendments inside Nasr School and Mohamed Farid School at the constituency of Tanta. Gharbia also witnessed mass voting, as workers at Tanta Company for Oil and Soup were taken to vote in favor of the amendments in Saber Refaiy School.
Assiut:
EOHR observers witnessed low participation in station 64 in Awlad Elias Village in Sedfa constituency where the number of registered voters was 970 and only 20 persons went to vote. In Sedfa also there was government cars with numbers 683 with microphones attached to it announcing that those who will not go and vote will pay a fine of 100 LE. The same announcement was heard also in the local radio on the city. Assiut city also witnessed some violations, as bus number 353 was witnessed carrying the governorate administration employees to vote for the amendments at Esmat Afifi School. Representative of NDP were seen encouraging the voters to vote for the amendments.
Accordingly, EOHR reaffirms that the absence of a full judicial supervision is considered a doorway to different kinds of violations, and also raise worries concerning the fairness of the voting process. The Civil Society Observatory for Monitoring Election announced yesterday that it will monitor the referendum, stressing on its independence from any official or political affiliation which will guarantee neutrality in monitoring the voting process. The Observatory also declared that the main violations monitored in the referendum were; interference of the security forces, mass voting, low participation and freedom of expression violations. The Observatory was formed prior to the parliamentary elections of 2005, and it includes different organizations concerned with monitoring the democratic process in Egypt.
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