Maat concludes the "Voter Voice" project yesterday, amid an Egyptian-Arab tribute

With the report "Localities 2008 ... Your place is a secret"

Maat Center concluded yesterday the project (Voice of the Voter) in a conference attended by Dr. Ali El-Din Hilal, former Minister of Youth, member of the Council of the Arab League for Democracy, Media Secretary of the National Party and a delegation from the State of Yemen headed by Professor Muhammad Al-Aidarous, member of the Yemeni Shura Council and member of the General Committee of the Congress Party, and the membership of Professor Taha Al-Hamdani Chairman of the Organizations Committee in Yemen, Mr. Tariq Al-Akwa, Head of the Planning Department, Mr. Jamal Al-Awadi, Executive Director of the Arab League for Democracy, and Mr. Issam Shiha, a member of the High Commission of the Wafd Party, a number of Arab political and human rights activists, and representatives of some embassies.

 Ayman Aqil, director of the Maat Center, said in his opening speech that the idea of the “Voter Voice” project, which was implemented by the center in cooperation with the Middle East Company's initiative (MEPI) It is an attempt to develop means of monitoring elections to complement the efforts of the rest of the organizations in this field. He reviewed the history of organizations in monitoring the general elections and what they witnessed and recorded in their reports in terms of the pros and cons, and the tendency of the organizations towards establishing alliances and blocs to monitor the elections, as a result of the political movement that Egypt witnessed since 2005 and the call To amending the constitution, and he said that the electoral process lacks its function without the presence of the voter, which is why Maat is seen as a societal watchdog over the electoral fund, in a step to expand, develop and strengthen the idea of popular oversight, and affirmed that organizations can benefit from this project in most Arab countries as they can develop it. By virtue of the nature of relationships between peoples and rulers.

 Oqeel mentioned that the most problems in executing the project is that some researchers are not sure about its execution and success, or that voters refuse to cooperate with researchers, or that some citizens stop to fill questionnaire forms.

 Oqeel condemned the situation of Al Gazeera Channel regarding the report and its refuse to cover the conference because the report criticized it with other space channels because of their focusing on events of 6April strike without paying attention to the electoral process and reporting public participation's area and interaction. Oqeel said that the administrator of Al Gazeera office told him that there are many question markets regarding the center so we have to boycott its activity. Oqeel described "Al Gazeera" sayings and situation of its officers as a situation against freedom of opinion and expression. 

Dr. Ali El Din Hilal praised the report And he said The integrity of the electoral process is beneficial to the interest of the system and political parties and establishes the idea of political participation among citizens. He also warned of the danger of preparing any formal democratic procedures by those in charge of the electoral process, and their negligence to address the manifestations of negative influence on the elections, most notably political money and religious slogans.

 Hilal stressed in his speech yesterday during the discussion of the center's report, that a number of Western organizations monitor the elections through citizens and succeed in reaching real results before announcing the end of the election day, and their oversight is based on the idea of monitoring law enforcement before ambush to record violations, and he warned against scenes of violence and bullying. In Egypt, there is a need for political participation, and from the politicization of election observation organizations for their reports and demanding them to respect the rules of professional and institutional work, without taking a hostile stance towards anyone, and he stressed the need to train observers on their work at least a year before any elections, noting that the reports of the National Council for Human Rights confirmed Only 15 % organization observers were trained to observe the 2005 parliament elections out of about 5,418 people. Hilal described the method of voters ’selection of local candidates as complex and made a number of observations on the final report of the Voter Voice project. Stressing the need to complete the project and develop the form in the upcoming elections

 Mohamed Hassan Alaedaroos, member of Yemeni Shora Council and deputy of the president of the governed Yemeni party "Almoatamer", said that "Maat's" experiment to observe public elections through the voter is a respectable one. He also asserted that it is important to repeat it in Yemen and described it as worth to be applied in al Arabic countries. He asserted the importance of Arabic united work to widen the base of public participation and to release national organizations to work in serious social work.

In the speech of Professor Jamal Al-Awadi, he stressed that the vote of the voter is one of the innovations of democracy and that work must be done continuously to spread the culture of democracy in the Arab world.

Mr. Taha Al-Hamdani also stressed that the vote of the voter helps support the integrity and transparency of the elections and reflects democracy in the Egyptian society through the participation of civil society in the electoral process, and that he objected to the name of the report in the word "secret" and that there is no longer a secret and we are in an era characterized by transparency and participation. From all sides.

And that experience will be of interest to the General People's Congress in Yemen to benefit from it, especially since Yemen will witness upcoming elections next April.

In his speech, Mr. Tariq Al-Akwa pointed out that the results of the report indicate that the influences on the electoral process as they are making its results known, that the elections did not do anything, and they are the secret of your place, and that the center is thankful as it invented and suggested many initiatives and tools, including your place is a secret for the development of the process The electoral system is trying to find practical solutions and specific and accurate recommendations for parties and civil society organizations in order to advance the electoral process in Egypt.

In his speech, Mr. Issam Shiha emphasized that the project seeks to reach the voter because it is the mainstay of the electoral process and allowed civil society organizations to access control and accusation in general for the administrative body that supervises the elections and that he is happy to criticize the administrative authorities of civil society organizations in monitoring elections, and this allows us to criticize the self that may be It bears fruit from the electoral process and seeks to advance it. He explained that the project has a great effort from those in charge of it, which enabled us to know the weaknesses and strengths in the elections from it. The project also sought to reach the voter through research and investigation forms that the voter answered, who always feels that he has no role. Or a real vote in the elections. 

Maat observe elections through 9400 voter and 1430 social researchers trained in 19 governorates to observe 94 electoral committees.

Mr. Abdel Nasser Kandil, Project Manager, presented the results of the study, and the most prominent features and results of the report appeared in recording citizens' cooperation with researchers, the highest average was in Cairo 1690 questionnaires, compared to the lowest percentage of 189 questionnaires as the lowest average in Kafr El-Sheikh, and the participating sample from 30 to 39 years old represented the majority by 38.7 % In comparison to 21.2 %, as a percentage achieved by the age group from 18 to 29 years, the percentage of males in participation was 73.4 %, and the National Party dominated most of the electoral campaigning operations before the committees and achieved in Port Said 99.6 %, in Aswan 99.5 %, Suez 99 % and Kafr El Sheikh 97.4 %, indicating that there is no unified approach by the executive authorities in dealing with the management of electoral campaigning.

 The most important results and notes of the report was that religious mottos were completely absent from elections because Muslim Brothers did not participate in the elections and because the government incriminated using such mottos, the raising of tribal family conflicts on the account of the political party ones, 43% of the voters did know to whom they gave their voice, 65% of the voters did not know the majority of candidates, the decrease of the percentage of those who participated in elections although 75% of them announced that they will repeat their participation, 78% of voters welcomed women candidacy, 96% of voters were asked to use their identification card in voting, the retreat of the phenomenon of purchasing voices, and security domination of 83.4% of committees and electoral headquarters without interfering in the electoral process. You can read the report on the center's web site or call the center's administration to get a copy of the report.

 You can read the report on the center's website or contact the center's administration to obtain a printed copy of it