Background:

Mūnīr Fakhrī ʿAbd al-Nūr was the Secretary-General of Ḥizb al-Wafd (al-Wafd party) and ran for elections in 1995 and again in 2000. Ḥizb al-Wafd is a national liberal political party in Egypt that tries to place itself at the ideological centre, in between the traditional ideologies of pan-Arabism and capitalism. The party further stands for the abolishment of the emergency law, solving unemployment and improving health facilities as well as educational systems. 

The interview concerns Wafd partisans sharing their experiences of the voting process in the 1995 parliamentary elections in the al-Waīlī district in Cairo (this was the district where Mūnīr Fakhrī ʿAbd al-Nūr was running). It succeeds the tape Alleged Outing of Egypt’s Corrupted 1995 Parliamentary Elections, after the polling stations were closed (See link: http://www.arabwestreport.info/en/alleged-outing-egypt%E2%80%99s-corrupt...).

Side A:

According to one of the Wafd partisans, the elections went very smoothly. When one of the members of the FPA informed the man about several polling stations he had gone to, where he had found that the voting had been interrupted because people were forced to evacuate the building, the man denied and said none of the votes had been tampered with. The man says he is not at all surprised that only a few people showed up to vote. He argues that this is a normal rate in the elections and it may have even increased since the parliamentary elections in 1990. Another Wafd partisan believes they were treated as equally as the NDP representatives and found no evidence of forgery. He even goes as far as by saying that there were more people than in the 1990 elections, because the Egyptians had more trust in the government in terms of the elections being fair and free.

The turnout of the elections is quite low, however it is good for al-Waīlī standars says the man. He argues that the low turnout is not due to lack of interest, but rather the list of electors was so badly done that a lot of people who wanted to vote simply could not find the person they wanted to vote for on the list. The man argues this year’s elections were free and fair with a 15% turnout for Wafd.