NDI Delegation Notes Administrative Improvements and Less Campaigning in Polling Centers

Voting in region two of the Egyptian People’s Assembly elections showed continued enthusiasm on the part of Egyptians to exercise their right to select the candidates and parties of their choice in Egypt’s first open parliamentary elections, NDI said in a statement released in Cairo.

The first-time opportunity to question their elected members of parliament (MPs) was so important to residents of South Sudan that some of them brought their own chairs to standing-room-only constituency dialogues organized in November by the South Sudanese Network for Democracy and Elections (SuNDE), a nonpartisan coalition of community groups.

Election observation efforts by Guatemalan citizen groups, including NDI’s partner Citizen Action (Acción Ciudadana, AC), helped increase public confidence in the integrity of last month’s presidential runoff election and head off a repeat of problems associated with the first round of voting. 

During that initial September poll, candidates and parties raised concerns about delays in the release of results, which were also blamed for several incidents of violence, including the burning of election materials.

Record Number of Voters Overcome Fears of Violence and Administrative Shortcomings

Defying expectations, record numbers of Egyptians completed two largely peaceful days of voting that give rise to the possibility of an election that reflects the will of the people, NDI said in a statement released in Cairo.