Background:

The People’s Assembly and Shūrā Council (Senate) were elected through an electoral system of single member plurality under Ḥusnī Mubārak’s regime. The ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) always ensured a super-majority by means of fraud, ballot stuffing, intimidation, and lack of judicial supervision during elections. The Muslim Brotherhood, a political Islamic group, was not recognised as a political party by law but its members were permitted to run as independents.

The 1995 parliamentary elections are the focus of this recording whereby several of the voters are interviewed and asked about their experience during the voting process.

Side A:

The recording starts off with a dispute between several Egyptian voters taking place in the district of Shubrā, where the voting process is going on. Inside one of the rooms, a man is heard arguing with one of the supervisors, regarding his proof of identification. He is permitted to vote provided that one has any sort of proof of identification is shown (this can be a driver’s license, identity card, passport or a license for holding weapons). The man showed his driver’s license and it was said that it could not be accepted.

ʿIṣām ʿAbd al-Salām, an engineer from Shubrā is appointed head of one of the voting rooms. According to al-Salām, 601 voters were supposed to be present in the room, however, only 98 had showed up until around 1pm (voting booths close at 5pm). Al-Salām argues that when the government employees leave at 2pm, it is expected that more people will show up to vote. Al-Salām cannot predict whether the number of voters will increase or not, but the number of candidates have increased since 1990, meaning that this itself may increase the number of voters.

A few days ago, Aḥmad Sayf al-Islām al-Bannā – son of the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB); Ḥassan al-Bannā – participated in a street rally and 23 of his supporters were arrested. It is not uncommon for members of the MB to be charged over participating in illegal demonstrations, to be held in custody for a few days and eventually be released due to lack of proof.

According to a head of another voting room, the police are preventing general agents from entering the voting booths. Theoretically, it is permitted for anyone with identification above the age of 18 to vote, but the police are allegedly disrupting the elections and “stealing away” the elections from the MB. Many police agents are present inside the building where the voting is taking place, which according to the local is prohibited. Many voters have not shown up because they are passive and have said that the elections are not free and fair.

According to Sayf al-Bannā’s representative, there was a sound of a bullet but the police personnel claimed it was a bomb and evacuated the entire building, leaving only a few representatives inside. It was unclear, he claimed, whether the representatives abused the situation by stuffing the ballots without the knowledge of the people.

Side B:

Continuation of side A:

A doctor and one of the voters present at the building, note the cops told them to leave the building because of the bomb. The man argues this did not actually happen, and it had in fact been a gunshot, and not a bomb. Furthermore, there are sounds of Egyptians yelling at the members of the FPA (including Cornelis Hulsman), preventing them from entering. During the incident, the government has apparently been working against Sayf al-Bannā in fear of him claiming seats in parliament or any other political figure other than the NDP for that matter. According to another local, Sayf al-Bannā is the representative that will bring back the good name of Islam in the country, an image that is peaceful, loving and not associated with weapons. According to Sayf al-Bannā the NDP representative used to be someone called Aḥmad Sālem, but Aḥmad Shīḥah bribed the NDP to be the representative of the party. Sayf al-Bannā says this only further shows the corruption of politics in Egypt.

In the governorate of Giza, there were supposedly 616 people who were supposed to vote that day (day of the recording), but only 80 showed up till mid-afternoon. One of the representatives; who is supportive of Mūnīr Fakhrī ʿAbd al-Nūr – an Egyptian Coptic Orthodox businessman and Wafdist politician – was asked why this was the case, and he responded by saying that most people will come later because of their job. The man argued that everything was going very smoothly with the exception of some of the competing candidates who started clashes inside the building, trying to disturb the smooth voting process. The representative claimed no one was evacuated and if anybody told him to leave the building he would have refused. It was merely a limited disruption, which had not affected the voting process.