First Free Egyptian Election In Decades
The New York Times reports:
MANSOURA, Egypt — Elated that for the first time in their lives every ballot mattered, Egyptians flocked to the polls in record numbers on Saturday to vote in a referendum on a package of constitutional amendments that will shape the country’s political future after Hosni Mubarak’s overthrow.
From this provincial capital in the Nile Delta, across the sprawling capital of Cairo and beyond, voters were already waiting when the polls opened at 8 a.m., and the lines grew throughout the day, sometimes stretching until the wait exceeded three hours.
Gone was the heavy security presence of the Mubarak years, with only a few police officers and soldiers lingering around the crowded entrances but mostly standing apart from the proceedings.
“Before, I was not even allowed into the polling station,” said Mohamed el-Sayid Auf, a stooped 52-year-old engineer and Muslim Brotherhood supporter voting in a poor neighborhood here. “The police would tell me: ‘Go home. We already voted on your behalf. We know what is best for Egypt better than you.’
“Now there is freedom; there is organization. The people of Egypt are happy today,” he continued. “I feel like I am flying. It is something coming from deep within my soul.”
Voters had to either accept or reject the eight amendments as a whole — all of them designed to establish the foundations for parliamentary elections in June and a presidential race in August. Most addressed some of the worst excesses of previous years — limiting the president to two four-year terms, for example, to avoid another president staying in office 30 years as Mr. Mubarak did.
The referendum itself divided political movements jousting to steer Egypt into the future. Remnants of the former ruling party, the National Democratic Party, were joined with their old enemies, the Muslim Brotherhood, in supporting the changes, while most of the leaders of the youth uprising opposed the referendum, saying they needed more time to fully overhaul the Constitution.
The Muslim Brotherhood, allowed to campaign openly for the first time since it was banned in 1954, said the changes would hasten a return to stability and the disbanding of the military council now running the state. But its position was widely perceived as an attempt to take early advantage of its superior experience and organization to capture a larger part of the vote.
The opponents want interim military rule in conjunction with a civilian-dominated presidential council for at least six months, preferably with an elected council to write a new constitution before selecting a president and a Parliament.
Across Cairo, people by the thousands waited in long, unusually orderly lines in an effort that many said was meant to prove that Egypt had changed. Many noted that it was the first election ever when they did not know the outcome in advance.
“I feel my vote will count; before, we didn’t believe it,” said Reem Ali, 36, as she stood with her family waiting for the first time to actually vote. “We had lost hope; now we feel hope.”
For many people, the exercise itself, having a say in an important decision, was already a victory.
