Egyptian Chronicles: Voting Girl 2010 Edition : Parliamentary Elections Round 1

And here she is or was , the voting girl 2010 edition who was a model citizen and voted in the Parliamentary elections 2010 of Egypt. I know I should have written this post last Sunday 28th November 2010 but for being busy in the Wikileaks I could not write my experience in the polling station in time as it is my habit.

Anyhow here we were on the Sunday 28th Nov 2010 , a big day indeed and if you were following me on twitter you will know that I could not find my Voting ID for hours still I was not eager to go and vote or to be accurate I was between going to vote and not going to vote due the reports I was receiving from twitter and Facebook on how bloody this day was. Even if I wanted to go to vote , I had to choose either to elect real candidates or invalidate my voting and write the name of Khaled Said or Mohamed ElBaradei in the ballot card.

Anyhow after couple of hours I found the voting id in my money purse where I left it after my voting girl 2010 edition : Shura elections experience !! There were still two hours before the official closure of the polling stations across the country and I thought that this was a sign for me to go and vote despite all what had been happening.

I went to my polling station which is at Kommia school in Agouza at about 5 PM Cairo local time and as soon as I came closer to its entrance I was attacked by the representatives of the candidates and their flyers.

“Please Ms. vote for Mr. X , he is better” ,”Please Ms. vote for Dr. Y" , “Please Ms. vote for Mrs. in the women’s quote” ,”Where is your name !?? Where is your committee??” I can’t deny that they seemed to be so helpful but they were annoying.

The polling station was more crowded than in the Shura elections. Food was being distributed as it was lunch time and so you would find meals boxes everywhere.

As usual as the women’s committees were at the upper floors in the school , at 4th and 3rd floors , it was not a surprise or a shock but just tiring. I was hungry and had decided to eat after doing my constitutional duty but it turned out that I was wrong. I do not understand the point of putting the women’s committees in the last top two floors in fact I do not understand the point of putting school classes there and forcing kids to carry on their tiny backs heavy bags full of books all those stairs !!? I am speaking as someone who experienced that daily torture twice in her school years !!?

I think I should have been more persistent in demanding an answer but let’s say I was exhausted from the stairs and hungry. Aside of being treated and hungry I had to face the challenge of every elections : Where is my name !!? This time I was like because I did not search too long and there were people who helped me , I only checked in two committees where I voted in the last one. The suspense started since then.

The surprise or shock was the fact that my number , my voting id number in those registered voters lists duplicated , yes duplicated with different name and when I asked I was not given sufficient or logic answer : It has nothing to do with the elections or voting , nobody will rig my vote !!

There was no curtain , I voted in the plain view of all the attendance in the room , there were women and children there and please do not ask me why they were there aside of the supervisors.

My committee ‘Aguoza and Dokki’ has been controlled for decades by the amazing duo of former minister Amal Othman and her labor seat sidekick Siyad Gohar so I know that invalidating my vote may not make them lose or make it hard for them and so I searched for any opposition candidates and found Mahmoud El-Sakka from Al Wafd plus some independent candidate for the labor seat , I did not choose the labor candidate of Wafd party “Safir Nour” because honestly how can a police general represent the woes of Egyptians peasants and labor !!?I know I should not but I chose Mahmoud El-Sakka from Al Wafd and some unknown man picked randomly for the labor.

I say proudly I chose the two women candidates randomly based on their academic degrees as one of them had a PhD and now I can’t remember neither of them so I can I know if they won or not !! I should have invalidate my women’s quota ballot card because I do not support that women quota thing.

For the record it has been a family traditional for all the voters to vote against Amal Othman , my granddad used to vote for the MB candidates despite he was not a MB nor did he ever agree with. Amal Othman had lost several elections like in 2005 for real but the NDP guardian angels always come and save her !!

Anyhow I finished casting my vote and stained my finger with that red ink. “Some reported that some polling stations across the country did not have that ink”

In my way out I found myself in front of a surprise that I did not prepare for , I found myself in front of Amal Othman herself !! The former minister and infamous laws tailor in the parliament herself with her signature ensemble and short hair cut. Of course the NDP aids were around her , the NDP supporters from working class came and cheered for the lady “Mrs. Amal, Mrs. Amal , ya Doctor Amal , ya sit Amal and lots of cheers with ………..”lololololiiiiiiii”. As respectable veteran blogger , I got my iPhone to use its camera , already I used it to take some snaps like those above but suddenly the mobile crashed ,yes crashed and the woman was start to have her round in the committee.That was the first time I had this issue in iPhone camera. I was friendly and smiling in front of the NDPians surrounding her. For my luck my aunt came at the same moment to vote and so I took her Nokia phone to take a snapshot for Dr. Amal but again I faced trouble , I can’t get her face because of all the people surrounding her and most important I do not know how to deal new models of Nokia mobile phones. Still I took one snapshot for Dr. Amal , an expressive snapshot if I am say.

And here it is upon public request , my signature Voting girl shot

Update :

Ok listen to this nice story , a relative of mine whom did not have a Voting id found out that his wife who is NDP member got him one “unstamped” on the day of the elections, she told him that he has to vote immediately in their polling station and vote for the NDP candidate , unfortunately he did so because he did not know anyone else. Do not ask how she got him the voting id without his knowledge or even his presence or how the supervisors let that gentleman to vote and his voting id is not stamped.