Egypt’s first multi-candidate presidential vote is not expected to be fair, according to the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR).
The organization is predicting the election process will suffer from inadequate supervision and a lack of transparency. It denounced the election oversight committee’s decision to bar access to polling stations for independent observers.
“I don’t expect we will get a fair or true result because the steps taken until now by the [election] committee have shown a lot of arbitrariness and a lack of transparency,” EOHR Secretary-General Hafiz Abu Sa’ada said during a news conference.
The elections committee has denied a request by EOHR and other groups to monitor the poll. This request came following the events of the 2000 parliamentary elections, when there were reports of violence and harassment of voters.
“There is no doubt voters would not be able to freely cast their votes come September 7th,” Egyptian affairs expert Dr. Rivka Yadlin told The Media Line. “The Mukhabarat [Egypt’s secret service] will be all over the place.”
The Egyptian government has also rejected international supervision for election day.