This will be the first time in history that Egyptians living abroad are participating in elections in the country.

General elections in Egypt are scheduled for September 2011, followed by presidential elections sometime next year.

Many Egyptian expatriates believe the decision was one of the positives that came out of the Jan. 25 revolution.

“We were deprived of this right in the past. We were considered outcasts with no right to participate in the country’s decision-making process despite our large numbers,” Dr. Saeed Asi, a senior community leader in Saudi Arabia, told Arab News Wednesday. He said voting would be conducted online and at polling stations to be established in Egyptian embassies and consulates.

Al-Asi, however, pointed to a clause in the Egyptian election law necessitating the presence of a judge in each and every polling station and said this might cause problems for expatriates wishing to vote via paper ballot. “I think it will be enough for us to vote electronically,” he added.

Muhammad Abu Al-Aiesh, an Egyptian active in the community, said Egyptian expatriates were excluded from voting in the past for very weak reasons.

“We were not allowed to participate in the Egyptian political process for what the government called logistic and technical factors,” he said, recalling that many countries gave their expatriates the right to vote a long time ago.

Egyptian legislative sources involved in organizing the elections said an agreement was concluded with an Indian IT company to facilitate the online voting process.

Many Egyptian expatriates called for establishing a database containing the names and addresses of all Egyptians living abroad in order to enable them to participate effectively in the electoral process.

Abdul Rahman Al-Bilaidi, an Egyptian computer programmer, said voting online was a method used by many countries. He said this method would enable Egyptian expatriates to vote in the parliamentary elections for the candidate of his choice in his constituency.