Dispatches from Cairo #6: The Election Countdown is Underway

The sixth installment in my Dispatches from Cairo series is now up on The Daily Organ.

Egyptian elections will be kicking off on the 28th of November, but despite their looming presence, coverage has been relatively low, as has anticipation.

One reason is the sense of political malaise. Many people are convinced that “nothing has changed”, and replacing Mubarak with SCAF was merely cutting the head off the beast.

Bloggers have been arbitrarily arrested, protestors were opened fire on a little over a month ago, and a blind eye has been turned to numerous cases of alleged torture. For a comprehensive list of the injustices perpetrated or ignored by the state in the months since the revolution read this article on Ahram Online, an Egyptian English language news website.

One can see then why elections organised by SCAF are a less-than-inspiring prospect. People are finding it hard to envisage that any “transition” overseen by such an old-regime piece of apparatus could bring about real change.

They are also unclear on the reasons for the 10 month delay. “I think people are not happy with all the delay... [they] are not so excited” says Omer Emam, a 22 year old student at Cairo University. There are fears that the reason for the delay was to allow time for a cover up of crimes committed by members of the old regime who still hold positions of power. 

While this is not impossible, it is important to remember that several months ago secularists and Islamists alike were pushing for a delay, in order to allow themselves more time to organise.

An understandable source of dissatisfaction is the confusion regarding the electoral system itself, which is unreasonably complex, and will run for over three months. The implications of having such a disjointed electoral system could be far reaching. Voter fatigue could set in due to the many rounds of voting and the confusing method of converting votes into seats.

Having said all of this, the process of candidate registration appears to have been free of all manipulation and shady activities, and turnout is likely to be high as the first free and fair elections the country has had in many years begins. Over the next few installments I will bring you updates as events unfold.