Egyptian presidential election, 2005

The Egyptian presidential election of 2005, held on September 7, 2005, was the first contested presidential election in Egypt's history. Hosni Mubarak, the incumbent President of Egypt, won a fifth consecutive six-year term in office, with official results showing he won 88.6% of the votes cast. http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050909/wl_nm/egypt_elections_dc A prominent opposition candidate, Ayman Nour of the Tomorrow Party, is estimated to have received 12% of the vote and Numan Gumaa received 5-7%. Criticism of the election process has centred on the process of selecting the eligible candidates, and on alleged election-law violations during voting. Mubarak was sworn in for his new term on September 27.

Election Day Events

Though support for Mubarak is significant and he was expected to win by a wide margin, charges of widespread confusion, ballot-stuffing, vote-buying, intimidation, and other forms of voter fraud marred the election on September 7, 2005.

Related Topics:
September 7 - 2005

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Low Turnout

The Mubarak government initially stated that turnout was high, though numbers varied. Surprisingly, on September 9, the government released results and turnout figures that were low and may have been accurate, as low in some places as 19%. http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050909/wl_nm/egypt_elections_dc

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On September 8, however, an election official and Mubarak's campaign both stated that it was around 30%. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/08/AR2005090800151_pf.html

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Both on election day and afterward, election monitoring groups stated that turnout was low, reportedly because ordinary Egyptians thought the outcome a foregone conclusion. http://about.upi.com/products/upi_scitech/UPI-20050907-055929-3140R

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On September 8, anonymous sources stated turnout in Alexandria, the second-largest city in Egypt, was 17%, and turnout in Ismaïlia (a city of about 750,000) was about 24%, with Mubarak taking more than 80% of the vote.

Related Topics:
September 8 - Alexandria - Egypt - Ismaïlia

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Wael Namara, a spokesman for Ayman Nour of the Tomorrow Party, estimated turnout to be between 10 and 15% in the countryside and from 3 to 5% in the cities. http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2005-09-07T210521Z_01_SCH718546_RTRUKOC_0_UK-EGYPT-ELECTIONS-OPEN.xml&archived=False

Related Topics:
Ayman Nour - Tomorrow Party

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In previous elections, voter turnout has run at less than 10 percent. http://in.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2005-09-07T233301Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_India-215318-4.xml Voter turnout in the May 2005 referendum that allowed the presidential election was officially reported as 54%, but judges monitoring the elections said it was more like 3%. http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050907/API/509070560

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Alleged Irregularities

Allegations of election law violations surfaced during the voting. News media reported that Mubarak's National Democratic Party transported voters to the polls by bus,http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20050907-0901-egypt-election.html and allegedly did not allow voters to mark their choices behind a curtain, an essential requirement of a secret ballot. Polling stations in Cairo were plastered with Mubarak posters and members of the NDP hovered over voters, taking ballots from voters and handing them to polling station officials. http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article310985.ece

Related Topics:
Secret ballot - Polling stations

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Ayman Nour of the Tomorrow Party, one of the most prominent opposition candidates, along with others, has accused the government of not using truly indelible ink on the hands of voters, allowing voters favoring Hosni Mubarak to remove stamps indicating they had voted and return to vote again. Indelible ink was used only in major boxes, while non-permanent ink was used in many other boxes. There were rumors of certain voters that had no ink at all which would make voter fraud even less difficult. http://www.metronews.ca/reuters_international.asp?id=93761 Nour also alleged that there was widespread vote-buying, a charge supported by the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights, though not otherwise corroborated. http://www.sudantribune.com/article.php3?id_article=11537

Related Topics:
Ayman Nour - Tomorrow Party - Indelible - Hosni Mubarak

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The Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights, while supporting Nour's claims, has stated that the irregularities were insufficient to require a rerun of the election. http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050909/wl_nm/egypt_elections_dc

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Protests by Kifaya Movement

On September 7, 2005, men in plainclothes broke up a Cairo protest by the Kifaya movement calling for Egyptians to boycott the elections, beating some of the protesters. http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050907/wl_nm/egypt_elections_beatings_dc. Media sources state that as many as three thousand Kifaya protesters illegally marched on central Cairo, possibly the largest crowd ever drawn by that protest movement, while armed soldiers and police watched. http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1906442005

Related Topics:
September 7 - 2005 - Cairo - Kifaya

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Election Monitoring

At 10:00 a.m. on September 7, two hours after the start of the election, Egypt's Presidential Election Commission unexpectedly stated that it would allow civil society groups to monitor the election. However, in many cases they were not allowed into polling places and were beaten and interrogated, especially in Southern Egypt. http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=14479

Related Topics:
September 7 - Election Commission - Civil society - Monitor

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These citizen monitors were in addition to the Egyptian judges who have been allowed to independently monitor the elections. http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/12577556.htm

Related Topics:
Judges - Monitor

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More Protests

A larger protest of around 10,000 people was organized by Kifaya on September 10, 2005, to contest the election results and the mass rigging activities and cheating that occurred on the election day. It was reported by independent observers, reporters and candidate representatives that the NDP (Mubarak's Party) used governement resources to change the election results. In some cases, citizens were beaten or forced to vote for Mubarak. In other cases, the boxes were already filled with marked ballots. However, the most explicit action that provoked the protest was allowing pro-Mubarak voters only to vote without being previously registered in the voter lists, giving Mubarak between 20 to 30 extra illegal points in the results. http://optimusvoices.blogspot.com/2005/09/anti-mubarak-demostrations-september.html

Related Topics:
September 10 - 2005

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