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Parliamentary elections 2015 [Flickr]


Parliamentary elections 2015 [Flickr]

Parliamentary elections 2015 [Flickr]

Parliamentary elections 2015 [Flickr]

Parliamentary elections 2015 [Flickr]

#Elections 2015 : Voting is like Praying as it seems !!

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On Saturday, Parliamentary elections polling stations in Egyptian consulates and embassies in 139 countries all over the world opened its doors to Egyptian expats participating in the parliamentary elections.
Back in homeland, preparations are being taken to secure the elections with security personnel from Egyptian armed force and police force to secure polling stations in 103 electoral constituencies in 14 governorates.
Nearly 27,402,353 registered voters are expected to participate in the parliamentary elections to elect 226 MPs out of 2,573
Earlier Saturday in a televised word President Abdel Fattah asked the people of Egypt especially the Youth to participate in the parliamentary elections that will kick off in Egypt tomorrow.
He also said that the upcoming parliament would represent the “Egypt’s Consciousness” in front of the world !! Yeah, former NDPians and journalists like Abdel Rahim Ali are going to represent Egypt’s Consciousness in front of the world.
“The Whole world” is the key phrase here. It is about how the whole world is going to witness these elections as proof on the success of Abdel Fattah El-Sisi’s administration and regime.
The regime is worried that there will be a low turn out just like what happened during the Presidential elections.
For the past week, the Pro-regime hosts were urging and begging people to go to the polling stations.
Abdel Rahim Ali says that boycotting the elections is
like treason !!! 
On Friday, Pro-Sisi supporters launched on twitter hashtags in Arabic like “Go people and vote for Egypt’s future” calling the citizens to participate in the elections in order to show the world that what happened in Egypt was not a coup in July 2013 and in order to stop the Salafists from winning the elections !!
If you boycott the elections or are just lazy then you are traitor !! You know treason charges are the easiest thing to say in this country now !!
Ironically and sadly enough, we see now Pro-regime Sheikhs are using religion to promote for  participation in the elections in a way that reminds me with the Islamists and the Muslim Brotherhood.
Famous and renowned Sheikh Ahmed Omar Hasham said that boycotters in the elections are sinners !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hasham is a member in Al-Azhar's Grand Scholars committee !! 
Abdullah El-Nagar, the member of Al-Azhar’s Complex for Islamic Research said in a TV interview on Al-Mehawar TV channel that participating and voting in the election was duty like praying for Muslims !!
Al-Azhar is Egypt's biggest official Islamic institution.
He also said that citizens who neglect that duty of voting are like those who abandon praying !!!!! So much for secularism.
It is worth to mention that Minister of Religious Endowment Mokhtar Gomaa warned from the use of religion in these elections.

Parliamentary elections 2015 : In Giza

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After few hours , Egypt’s first parliamentary elections after the ouster of Morsi in July 2013 will kick off its first stage in 14 governorates across the country.
Strangely , there is some sort of an agreement among the journalists that those elections are less interesting and exciting than the 2011 elections or even the 2010 elections.
Egyptian lady votes in Egyptian embassy in Jordan
on Saturday "Reuters"


It is true , after all those elections are mainly between the Pro-Sisi supporters with no opposition what so ever. There are no ideological battles between the right wing or left wing for real , nor there are battles between Islamists and seculars for real.
Yes, the Pro-Sisi supporters are claiming that the Salafists will invade the parliament to turn Egypt in to Afghanistan in a fake campaign in order to push the people to the polling stations.
The campaign is actually turning to some kind of hysterical racist Islamophobic one from what I see.
Those Salafists aka Nour Party are actually Sisi supporters , they are regime friendly since the days of Mubarak.
Again, it is a fake battle.
In the end as I hinted before this is a Pro-Sisi parliament.
Now as I am sick and yet have got a long day to cover after all inshallah , this post is about the parliamentary elections 2015 in Giza governorate ,one of Egypt’s biggest blocs in general because there are quite interesting numbers and facts regarding this governorate.
I live there and this is why I followed its news.
First of all we are speaking about one of the biggest and diversified voting blocs in Egypt with 4,639,126 registered voters out of population equal to 7,486,361. We are speaking about all sorts of voters here from filthy rich Upper class in Sheikh Ziyad district  to poor classes in districts like Meet Okaba , from farmers and workers to people living in Bahriya Oasis.
Now there are 414 candidates competing on 48 seats for Giza in the House of Representatives including 37 individual seats and  11 electoral list seats.
Most of the 414 candidates are independent.

Now interestingly, many of the voters who will go actually ignore the fact that due to the new Constituencies law, they may elect more than one candidate for their Constituency.
They also ignore about the list and get confused about them. I do not blame them because they all got similar names like “For the love of Egypt” , “Egypt’s calling” and “Egypt whatever” !!!!
This is not in Giza only but the rest of the country actually.
What is more interesting that out of those 414 , there are only 22 women candidates. Most of the women are participating in electoral lists just like the rest of Egypt.
Many former members of ex-ruling National Democratic Party“NDP” are running in these elections. It is like it is their ultimate comeback. One of the NDP icons trying to come back in the elections is Siyad Gohar.
For nearly 20 years , Siyad Gohar to be Agouza and Dokki MP for labor seat in People’s assembly along with Amal Othman, the former minister of social solidarity forming a duo in the People’s assembly.
Now Gohar is back and competing on one of the two seats in Agouza and Dokki Constituency , my Constituency along other 35 candidates fighting over more than 400,000 votes from different backgrounds and classes.
Parliamentary elections 2015
Siyad Gohar's banner in a working class area
Needless to say , all their attention in on the working class areas in the Constituency.
Mostly independent , Gohar got rivals from other candidates like for instance controversial TV host and journalist Abdel Rahim Ali.
Ali got fame from broadcasting on TV alleged recording from phone calls of activists like Wael Ghonim and politicians like former vice-president  Mohamed ElBaradei.
Parliamentary elections 2015
Abdel Rahim Ali's banners and behind Gohar's banner 
The Pro-regime journalist is proud of what he did. He is not ashamed also of being labeled as the “Security apparatuses candidate in Agouza and Dokki”. He has been actively working in poor neighborhoods in the district for a whole year now. He is also using his Bawba news website to attack other candidates.
Another strong rival for Gohar and Ai is none other than Ahmed Mortada Mansour , the son of the Pro-regime loudmouth bigger-than-life lawyer and Zamalek Sports club chairman Mortada Mansour !!
Ahmed Mortada got a huge support from both his father and Free Egyptians Party which he joined from couple of weeks ago !! Already I believe that the 38-years old lawyer has passed his permitted budget for campaign with all the posters and banners he got all over the Constituency.
Parliamentary elections 2015
Ahmed Mortada Mansour's banners in 2015 
I expected the Free Egyptians Party to score huge numbers of seats.
Ironically, Ahmed Mansour tried to run in 2011 elections on the same seat but he lost it to Political sciences professor Amr El-Shobaki.
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Ahmed Mortada Mansour's posters in 2011
The former MP in the 2011 People’s assembly is running once again but he got no support like before from the media or the revolutionary activists who supported as liberal choice against the Muslim Brotherhood.
I forgot to tell you that this Constituency, my Constituency is being labeled as “The Celebrity Constituency”.
To be honest I do not want to elect anyone of them !!!!
Anyhow aside from those interesting candidates , we got not less than three former army officers running in the elections.
Parliamentary elections 2015
Colonel Medhat , the son of the armed forces is running for parliament 
This time , we got high participation of former army officers unlike any other elections.
Aside from Salafist Al-Nour party, we got no real Islamist representation in this elections. In my constituency , former Shura Council MP and ex-member of Al-Wasat PartyTarek El-Malt is running though.
There are interesting candidates catching names in Giza like for instance none other Mostafa Bakry , the Pro-military and close to Presidency journalist who runs on Pro-Sisi "For the love of Egypt" list.
This list is expected to score most of the List's seats.
Another name catching attention is the name of Mohamed Fouad, the Young Wafd Party candidate running in Popular working class area. I am interested to see what the AUC liberal graduate who used to live in the United States in going to do there.
To be honest I found my Constituency more interesting. Despite I feel I am going to boycott the elections and spoil my vote , I want to see the results in the constituency as well in the rest of Giza.
Here is a nice info-graph I made from the numbers posted from Reuters’ Aswat Masriya.

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Kodak Agfa posted a photo:

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Egyptian Parliamentary elections 2015
Day one
Outside the Qomaia language school polling station


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Kodak Agfa posted a photo:

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Egyptian Parliamentary elections 2015
Day one
Ballot boxes at Qomia language school polling station

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Kodak Agfa posted a photo:

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Egyptian Parliamentary elections 2015
Day one
Ballot boxes at Qomia language school polling station

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Kodak Agfa posted a photo:

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Egyptian Parliamentary elections 2015
Day one
Two kids with painted fingers at Qomia language school polling station in Agouza.

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Kodak Agfa posted a photo:

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Egyptian Parliamentary elections 2015
Day one
Empty from voters Qomia language school polling station in Agouza.

Parliamentary elections 2015 Day 1 : Where are the voters !?

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Where are the voters !? Where are the young voters?
These two questions are the main questions anyone would ask earlier today after seeing the polling stations during the first day of the parliamentary elections’ first stage in 14 Egyptian governorates.
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There are nearly 27 million registered voters in the first stage who will choose their 226 representatives if I am not mistaken. Well, one thing for sure I can say safely that most of those millions did not go to vote on the first day of the elections. Just like the days of Mubarak, we are back to the days of empty polling stations.
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Personally during as part of work as a journalist, I passed through several polling stations in my Constituency Agouza and Dokki in Giza at 2 PM and 7 PM and I found the following:

  • The number of candidates delegates and representatives at polling stations was more than the voters.
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  • The majority of the voters if I found them were from the senior citizens from ladies and men as well few middle aged ladies and men.
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  • The judges supervising the polling stations admitted that youth did not participate in the elections this time. One judge even told me that the only young person he saw in his polling station was a lady in her 40s. DSC09788
  • The people were choosing the people they know through the media or rather the TV like for instance Amr El-Shobaki , Pro-Sisi Abdel Rahim Ali and For the Love of Egypt list.
  • Most people did not know they had to choose two candidates instead of one.
  • Yes, the turnout increased a little bit after 6 PM but still not a big different.
I believe that the youth who attended the first training of Carlos Peseiro, the new coach at the Al-Ahly Club in Cairo were more than the youth who wanted to vote across the country.
Despite the government and High elections committee did not say that the turnout was low, it decided to extend to voting hours and to give public sector employees a half day so they can go and vote.
Also, they allowed people with expired IDs to vote too !! Yeah, I feel the old tricks are back.
Pro-regime TV hosts and guests are freaking out since afternoon screaming and even insulting the people. Oh yes insulting the ungrateful people who do not help El-Sisi.
Close to Presidency TV host Ahmed Moussa claimed on his TV that President El-Sisi was sad from the turnout !!!!
Moussa : El-Sisi is sad !!
It seems that El-Sisi is indeed sad because his adviser for social affairs Dr. Azza Heikal blames the mothers of young people who did not go and vote.
She also says that the youth who did not go and vote in the elections do not have the right to object on anything after that !!
Azza Heikal used to give lectures on universal conspiracies against Egypt in the army by the way.
Pro-Regime Rania Badawy who once caused a diplomatic crisis with Ethiopia is back screaming telling or rather ordering the people to go and vote because she does not know how to live!!
Rania Badawy : go and vote so I can live !!
Needless to say, Rania Badawy and her co-host Amr Adeeb were surprised to find a a viewer calling them on air that she would not go to vote because Sisi fooled the Egyptians with his lousy projects and that upcoming parliament would amend the constitution so he would rule Egypt for another 30 years.
A caller slams El-Sisi on air.
Other Pro-regime TV hosts and their guests blamed the youth.
A former Minister of interior wondered why the lazy youth who set on cafes all the time ignored their respectable president’s call for them to participated in the elections. He also added that El-Sisi was reaching for youth through selfies.
Go and vote , the President takes selfies with youth !!!

Nevertheless, Al-Gomhouria Newspaper’s Monday issue says that once again Egypt dazzles the world as the people defy terrorism and elect the MPs !!
Al-Gomhouria's Front Page from parallel universe
"Mohamed Othman"
CBC produced a song “Go” to encourage people to vote
Hashtag “Nobody_has_gone” in reference to the elections has been top trending all over Egypt for hours now with comics making fun from his El-Sisi and his regime in these elections.
Now I am waiting for tomorrow to speak more about what happened. 

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Kodak Agfa posted a photo:

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Day 2 from Egyptian parliamentary elections 2015 in Giza governorate
Parliamentary elections at Meet Okaba primary school in Mohendessin , Giza.

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Kodak Agfa posted a photo:

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Day 2 from Egyptian parliamentary elections 2015 in Giza governorate
Parliamentary elections at Meet Okaba primary school in Mohendessin , Giza.


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Kodak Agfa posted a photo:

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Day 2 from Egyptian parliamentary elections 2015 in Giza governorate
Parliamentary elections at Meet Okaba primary school in Mohendessin , Giza.

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Kodak Agfa posted a photo:

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Day 2 from Egyptian parliamentary elections 2015 in Giza governorate
Parliamentary elections at Meet Okaba primary school in Mohendessin , Giza.

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Kodak Agfa posted a photo:

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Day 2 from Egyptian parliamentary elections 2015 in Giza governorate
Parliamentary elections at Meet Okaba primary school in Mohendessin , Giza.

Parliamentary elections 2015 : Voting girl on Day “2”

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Sorry guys , I could not post anything yesterday after finishing the second day of the parliamentary elections' first stage as I was so tired after working for long hours and sleeping for few hours.
Well on Monday , the first stage of the Parliamentary elections concluded in Egypt , the results began to surface after 9 PM till next morning on Tuesday.
I did a round in several polling stations and here is what I saw :
  • At 1 PM I went to Meet Okaba primary school in Mohendessin in my constituency ‘Giza and Dokki’. It is a working class polling station. What I saw there were mostly old ladies and Middle age ladies coming to vote.
  • I felt that there were more people coming vote than yesterday but a judge in the polling station told that it was like yesterday and mostly elderly showed up.
  • Monday evening, I went in to another round on several polling stations in Dokki Upper Middle and Middle classes polling stations.
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    The longest queue made of three people I saw at the Agricultural research center in
    Dokki 
  • Despite the fact that several judges I met on Monday said that the turnout was the same like on Sunday while being bored , I felt that there were more people showing especially from younger ages but not so many.
  • The turnout is lower than the Presidential elections
  • Most polling stations I went to in the past 48 hours , the number of voters did not exceed 500 voters except very few polling stations.
  • Usually, I saw extra two ballot boxes empty in the polling stations.
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Two empty extra ballot boxes , I saw them alot 
  • The Youngest voters I have on Monday were a 20-years old dentistry student and a 18-years old girl who came with her mom who told which candidates to choose. The 20-years old student chose Amr El-Shobaki while the 18-years old girl and her mom chose liberals only.
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The dentistry student was the youngest voter the judge had seen in Gamal Abdel Nasser
Polling station, he told me to photograph him immediately 

  • Most voters I met in Agouza and Dokki had a problem in choosing another candidate.
  • Most voters chose those known in the media even those who are opposite to each other. For instance, many people chose Abdel Rahim Ali and Amr El-Shobaki who are completely opposite to each other representing opposite ideologies least I can say.
  • I saw very old ladies and men coming in using the wheel chairs provided by the ministry of interior
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The judge was reading the names of the candidates to this old lady on a MOI wheel
chair , she came with her daughter who was voting in another classroom at
Martyr Maher Abdel Maksoud school polling station in Dokki 

  • Personally I believe it is not only the National duty , the love of Egypt and love of Sisi that made many elderly come and vote as much it has to do with the LE 500 fine.They think about their pensions after all and get worried.  
  • The Egyptian Christians also went to vote for fear of the Salafists’ Control thanks to the media when the Salafists or rather Nour Party is actually a Pro-regime party.
  • There have been lots and lots of reports about violations in those two days where you hear once again that votes are being sold for money in popular working class areas in Agouza and Omarneya in Giza sadly. Personally I heard several stories in Omarenya and in Agouza how the vote was bought there by LE 100. In my Constituency “Agouza and Dokki” , both Abdel Rahim Ali and Ahmed Mortada Mansour are facing allegations of buying votes by observers and NGOs.
  • I met Mortada Mansour outside a polling station surrounded by his fans. I asked the controversial lawyer and head of Zamalek Sports club about the turnout and with a big smile he told me that the Egyptian woman saved the day as she had done before in the Presidential elections unlike the lousy youth sitting on cafes smoking shisha!!!!
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Mortada Mansour and his fans 

Voting Girl Parliamentary elections 2015 :

No, I did not go to vote because I know that this parliament won’t represent me and is not made for me despite a man like Amr El-Shobaki is running.
This parliament is not made to represent the citizens and support the establishment of true democratic state, on the contrary it was made for the opposite.

Results Time :

At night the polling stations closed and began the counting process.
As expected the “For the love of Egypt” won massively. Guys , this list was made to win already.
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Unfortunately , Abdel Rahim Ali , Ahmed Mortada Mansour , Amr El-Shobaki and Siyad Gohar are going to have compete once again in the runoffs in my constituency which usually has got even lower turnout usually.
I am still too tired and too bored from these elections.

The beginning of a dust storm in #Cairo #Egypt #Citizenjournalism #Blogger #Egyweather #nofilter [Flickr]

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