Voter coercion on display in Port Said parliamentary elections

Electoral violations visible on day two of voting in this year’s parliamentary elections saw clear incidents of voter bribery in Port Said.

Yasser al-Badry Farghaly, a candidate running in the Port Fouad constituency representing the Egyptian Social Democratic Party, told Mada Masr he witnessed electoral violations by a rival “backed by security forces and money.”

Farghaly declined, however, to name whom of the 11 candidates running in Port Fouad he intended.

He described violations including the manufacturing of popular mobilization by distributing money to voters, especially among young people.

Farghaly said he had filed a complaint with the head of his polling station in the district and submitted a report to the police, but that both authorities said they lacked jurisdiction over practices occurring outside the polling stations.

"These tents everywhere don’t have permits. We want to know who set them up," he added, commenting on the tents erected outside several polling stations to accommodate the gatherings mobilized to attend the ballot.

Mada Masr's correspondent in the Port Fouad district also witnessed clear instances of voter coercion. A large gathering of people was visibly collecting the ID cards of assembled voters and handing them cards emblazoned with the image of Islam Falih, an independent candidate running in the same district.

Voters were then transported in minibuses toward their polling stations. One citizen who received a card said he had heard that LE300 would be given to those who returned the cards in exchange for their IDs.

Al-Akhbar Al-Youm also reported “accusations” of voter coercion, including instances in which voters were instructed to gather at “guidance centers affiliated with some candidates in popular areas, far from the polling stations” before being transported to the polling station.

During a tour of three polling stations in the Zuhour district of Port Said, Mada Masr's correspondent observed similar scenes: stationary crowds, mostly women and the elderly, as well as a steady queue of young people outside the Mahmoud Fouad School polling station.

MP and independent candidate Ahmed Farghaly, who is running for reelection in the district, accused “one of the candidates using political money for bribery” of misleading voters in the Zuhour and Manakh electoral district by sending people door-to-door to collect voter ID cards in Farghaly’s name in exchange for LE300. He stressed that he rejects such practices and said he had filed reports with authorities about the incident.

The district has seen fierce competition between Farghaly and independent candidate Al-Husseini Abu Qamar, a former leader in the dissolved National Democratic Party.

Polls were set to close at 9 pm on Tuesday, bringing an end to a voting process marked by widespread and widely publicized violations across both phases.

Several incidents of physical violence took place during phase two, which was conducted across 13 governorates including Cairo, and most of the Delta and Suez governorates. The incidents included an independent candidate who reportedly “stormed” a Damietta police station on Monday night with members of his campaign, claiming that a rival candidate had deployed “thugs” to secure a win. The Interior Ministry said it arrested all 13 individuals and referred them to the Public Prosecution.

Multiple candidates in Shubra also reported being targeted by thugs working for one of the constituency’s candidates.

Widespread condemnation of the elections’ validity has circulated among the public and commentators after similar incidents of violence, bribery and other violations were recorded in the first phase of voting, which took place across the 14 governorates of Upper Egypt, Alexandria and Giza.

The National Elections Authority subsequently ordered a rerun of the vote in a quarter of the phase one constituencies.