Mubarak wins Egypt’s stage-managed presidential election

The poll was the first multi-candidate election held under Mubarak, who has ruled Egypt since 1981. Ballot access was tightly restricted, however, and the state media blatantly favoured the president. Popular hostility towards the phony campaign and the government was demonstrated in the very low voter turnout—just 23 percent according to official figures, which were probably inflated.

The president received 6.31 million votes—a small fraction of Egypt’s total population of 71 million. The mass abstention reflected widespread and justified cynicism among ordinary Egyptians that the vote would result in anything other than a Mubarak victory, as well as general apathy regarding the candidacies of the nine presidential challengers. Seven of the candidates were virtually unknown, while the two leading liberal figures focused their campaigns on political reform measures and did not challenge Mubarak’s deeply unpopular right-wing economic restructuring program.

Ayman Nour of the Ghad Party received 7.6 percent of the vote, while Numan Gomaa of the Wafd Party finished in third place with 2.9 percent. Nour’s second placing surprised Egyptian political analysts, since his liberal Ghad Party was only founded last year and the politician still faces forgery charges relating to the party’s registration. Much of Nour’s support is believed to have come from supporters of the banned Muslim Brotherhood, which advocated an anti-Mubarak vote. In the lead up to the election, Nour, unlike Gomaa, actively lobbied the Islamists for their support.

Ghad Party spokesman insisted that Nour actually received at least 30 percent of the ballot, and claimed that his supporters were prevented from entering polling stations to vote. “We will not take these rigged results into consideration, we will take into consideration the will of the people,” Nour declared. The reformist politician has threatened to instigate legal action to overturn the election result.

The Wafd Party also challenged the legitimacy of the ballot. “No candidate would have obtained such a score [i.e., Mubarak’s 88.6 percent] in a democratic country,” Gomaa said. “September 7 was like a traditional election day in Egypt, like every other election organised by the military regime.”

Both candidates hope to build on their campaigns to win support in the legislative elections that are due to be held in November. Under existing legislation, only those political parties which secure more than 5 percent of all parliamentary seats will effectively be able to stand candidates in the 2011 presidential election.

The Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR) issued a report following the vote detailing numerous incidents of electoral irregularities and corruption. On election day, the president’s supporters as well as factory workers and public servants were driven to polling stations in government-paid vehicles. Business owners were threatened with harassment by licensing agencies if they failed to vote. Hafez Abu Seada, EOHR chairman, estimated that up to 15 percent of the total vote had been rigged in favour of Mubarak.

In violation of electoral laws, members of the ruling National Democratic Party wore campaign buttons and other party paraphernalia in polling stations, while opposition monitors were frequently denied supervisory access. In some areas, Wafd and Ghad party members were beaten by pro-government goons, and poll monitors were assaulted and interrogated by security officials. In a number of districts, the names of opposition candidates were not on the ballot. There were also numerous reports of impoverished Egyptians being paid cash, food, or fuel to vote for Mubarak.

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http://wsws.org/articles/2005/sep2005/egyp-s19.shtml