Elections without Opposition (Human Rights Watch re: Egypt 18 Jan)

Egypt's Recent Election was Rife with Fraud, Opposition Groups Say
by Heba Morayef
Published in:
Executive Magazine
January 18, 2011

Egypt is still reeling from the recent elections for the People's Assembly, the lower and primary house of the country's bicameral parliament. The first round, on November 28, was marred by reports of fraud, violence and widespread denial of access to accredited observers. The organized opposition was left with only four seats. The Muslim Brotherhood, which in 2005 had won 88 seats with members running as independents, did not win a single seat.

In response to what they saw as widespread vote rigging, both the Brotherhood and the Wafd - another of the main opposition parties - announced their withdrawal from the second round, held on December 5. The final tally gave the organized opposition a mere 3 percent of the seats, compared with 23 percent in 2005. "An Assembly Without Opposition" read the headline of one independent newspaper after the announcement of the final results.

Many Egyptian analysts expected that there would be fraud in the absence of independent judicial supervision, but nobody quite expected a People's Assembly so devoid of opposition. The government had in recent years pointed to lively debates in parliament and the media as evidence of democratic life when speaking to the outside world. A government that remains as image-conscious as this one needs to have an opposition in parliament.

The overall results reflect the exclusion of the opposition that Human Rights Watch observed during the campaign and the first-round voting itself. In the weeks prior to the elections, security officers resorted to their usual pre-election crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood, arresting at least 1,300 members between October 9 and November 28. I spoke to 24 of those who'd been arrested and held for periods ranging from 24 hours to six days, all eventually released without charge. These were young, educated men who had been putting up campaign posters or handing out flyers in support of a Brotherhood candidate. Four of them told me they'd been tortured. A fair and free election requires opportunities for candidates to campaign - in other words, to express their views freely and to bring supporters together in rallies and meetings. The authorities showed little respect for these basic rights ...

http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2011/01/18/elections-without-opposition