Mubarak Seeks Reform Image, but Charges of Fraud Mar Egyptian Vote

CAIRO — Egyptians voted Monday in parliamentary elections that President Hosni Mubarak hopes will bolster his image as a democratic reformer and give him a mandate to lead Egypt through tough economic times that lie ahead.

However, the balloting was marred by reports of violence, allegations of fraud and what appeared to be a low voter turnout due to deep-seated public apathy.

Spokesmen for the four opposition groups contesting the election along with the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) all accused the government of ballot-rigging and acts of violence and intimidation directed against both their members and voters.

Their reports ranged from one to three people killed, scores injured and hundreds arrested in clashes between supporters of the ruling and opposition parties.

However, government officials strongly denied the charges, and independent observers touring various polling stations in the Nile Delta, where most of the violence was reported, witnessed a few clashes and scuffles but said the opposition charges appeared to be greatly exaggerated.

‘Inevitable’ Allegations

“The allegations of fraud and violence are as inevitable as the outcome of the election,” said one Western diplomat, who suggested that the balloting was neither as crooked as the opposition seemed determined to portray it nor as fair as the government would like it to seem.

Mubarak’s party dominated the old assembly, with 391 seats against 57 for the opposition after the last general elections. It is expected to win a large majority of the seats with ease, but final results are not expected until Thursday.

The president called the elections after it became apparent earlier this year that a court was about to rule that the election law under which the 458-seat People’s Assembly was chosen in 1984 was unconstitutional. The old law required that all candidates be members of a political party, whereas the constitution stipulates that any Egyptian may run for office provided he or she is literate, over the age of 30 and not a convicted felon.

Mubarak, who is expected to seek reelection when his current six-year term of office expires in October, was said to be anxious that no cloud of illegitimacy be left hanging over the body which must formally renominate him. So, before the court could hand down its ruling, he dissolved the old assembly, drew up another law allowing independent candidates to run and called new elections.

Three Main Issues

While the opposition parties charge that the new election law is not much better than the old one--it is still written in a way that all but ensures victory for the ruling party--they jumped at the chance to take on the NDP in a vigorous campaign swirling around the issues of democracy, theology and economics.

The Muslim Brotherhood, a technically illegal Islamic group that was nevertheless allowed to participate in the elections, formed an alliance with two other small groups, the Socialist Labor Party and the right-wing Liberals party, and campaigned for the introduction of sharia , or Islamic law, in Egypt.

Islamic fundamentalism is strong in Egypt, and most observers believe that only massive vote-rigging can prevent the new, Brotherhood-dominated “Progressive Alliance” from supplanting the conservative Wafd Party as the main opposition group in Parliament.

The NDP, for its part, has stressed the need for stability and the gradual imposition of democratic reforms to which Mubarak repeatedly has said he is committed. Mubarak is especially anxious that these elections be perceived as free and honest, despite the fact that no one believes the outcome is in doubt.

In Egypt, the system of patronage is as old as the Pyramids, and the government traditionally is in the best position to dispense most of it. This government is no exception, and, in the weeks leading up to the elections, so many concessions have been granted to special interest groups, so many popular projects approved and favors dispensed that Mustafa Amin, a prominent columnist, was moved to write that Egyptians will overcome their poverty only if elections are held every month.

Freest in 30 Years

Despite this, most observers agree that the elections are the freest held in Egypt in at least 30 years.

“These elections may not be completely free, but they won’t be forged either,” said a Western diplomat. “They are less rigged than in 1984, and in the long term will probably be seen as a step forward toward democracy in Egypt.”

Still, the allegations of voting fraud could cloud Mubarak’s efforts to portray himself as a democrat, observers said.

Even discounting most of the opposition’s claims as unconfirmed, there were still widespread reports of election irregularities, including polling stations being forced to close early by NDP workers, polling monitors from the opposition parties being barred from voting stations and would-be voters in rural areas being accosted and turned back on their way to vote.

At a polling station in Agouza, a middle-class district of Cairo, NDP workers urged people to vote for the government and pressed campaign flyers into their hands as they stood in line to cast their ballots. Workers from other parties were also present, but they were kept outside on the street, while the NDP campaigners canvassed for votes all the way to the door of the polling booth without interference from police.

448 Seats at Stake

With 1,715 candidates from the five political parties and another 1,937 independents vying for 448 seats--10 seats in the assembly are appointive--voters were confronted with a choice that some found too bewildering. In rural polling stations outside Cairo, where illiteracy runs high, witnesses reported numerous instances where voters asked election officials to mark their ballots for them.

In an effort to simplify the procedure for illiterate voters, the Ministry of Interior, which supervised the elections, assigned each candidate a symbol that appeared on the ballot. But some of the symbols--a skull in one case, a banana in another--were not exactly flattering.

“If you were an illiterate voter, choosing on the basis of symbols alone, you might think twice about casting your ballot for a banana,” one Western observer noted.