CAIRO, 16 May 2005 — Egyptian expatriates will not be able to take part in Egypt’s first multi-candidate elections expected to take place in September, officials at the Egyptian Interior Ministry said. “Egyptian expatriates will not vote in the referendum on the amendment of the constitution to allow contested elections and they will not be allowed to cast their votes in the next presidential elections,” said Mahrous Shababik, general director of the Election Administration Department in the Interior Ministry.
“The current constitution does not allow absentee voting system and there is not a chance to amend the constitution to introduce this system,” he added. Some experts said Egypt has to allow absentee voting since expatriates’ ballot could make a difference.
“I think the authorities are worried and know that their ballot will make a difference,” said Muhammad Farid Hassanein, a former MP who announced his intention to join the presidential race and is currently touring Europe to win more supporters. “The Egyptian Constitution says that Egyptians should be treated equally and this is should be applied to voting and elections as well ... expats have the right to choose their president,” he told Arab News.
Meanwhile, President Hosni Mubarak said in an official statement yesterday that the Al-Ahram newspaper version of his interview with the Kuwaiti daily Al-Siyassiya “is distorted and inaccurate.”
The state-owned paper quoted Al-Siyassiya editor Ahmad Al-Jarallah as saying that the president’s attitude to his son becoming a president has changed after the recent constitution amendment.
“The president said that his son Gamal could stand now that the amendment of Article 76 of constitution had opened the door to candidates fulfilling certain conditions,” Jarallah wrote.
“The president is no longer sensitive about this issue, now that everyone has an equal chance (to contest the presidency) and there’s no question of power being simply bequeathed.”
“My son can stand just like any other citizen and then I will have the chance to decide at my leisure whether I’m to going to vote for him or not,” Jarallah quoted Mubarak as saying. Mubarak criticized in the interview some of the latest anti-Mubarak demonstrations saying they create a state of unrest that drives foreign investors away from the country.
