Bahey El Din Hassan – director of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies – speaking on behalf of a coalition of human rights organizations that participated in the initial phase of the monitoring the referendum on the Constitution, called upon the Supreme Electoral Committee that oversees the referendum, to return of the first phase of the referendum.
The press conference was held on Sunday at the Cairo Institute for Human Rights to present the report on the supervision of the vote on the first round of the referendum, under the title “Despite the Revolution, a referendum à la Mubarak.”
Hassan emphasized that the first phase has seen many irregularities which invalidate the referendum process, so they are demanding the rerun
Among the irregularities were the presence of members of the (Brotherhood’s) Freedom and Justice party inside poll stations using authorization documents by the National Council for Human Rights (headed by the speaker of the constituent assembly), many persons posing as judges, political violence and bullying.
Hassan added that the first phase of the referendum on the constitution after the revolution was conducted in spite of the circumstances and the political context, and was marked by absenteeism and intimidation of citizens. It followed the withdrawal of a number of political forces, civil formations from the constituent assembly because it was overwhelmed by a single political current, and despite the refusal of the majority of judges to participate in the referendum in protest of attempts to control the judicial system by the political power.
He pointed out that despite all these circumstances, the civil society organizations agreed to supervise the vote, even if they had prior reservations regarding the non-availability of the required conditions for a free and fair referendum, and despite the lack of international standards for free and fair elections, and the complete absence of international monitoring on referendum. He noted that the Egyptian people participated in an unprecedented way, especially women, since early morning.
Hassan highlighted some of the things that lead to annulling the first phase of the referendum entirely. these violations include the lack full judicial supervision, as defined by the Court of Cassation in 2005; how individuals impersonated judges in a number of committees; preventing civil society observers from overseeing the counting process; giving formal mandates to Freedom and Justice party members to access the polling center; the use of vote ballots that were not stamped in advance; rampant religious propaganda including the accusation of the nay-sayers to be infidels; deliberately disrupting the process in some committees for women; the lack of phosphoric ink; the siege of offices of Al-Wafd Party and the Popular Front; closing some polling stations, and sorting and announcing the results, before the official time; and the collective voting on behalf of women in some stations.
The associations co-signed this statement included: “The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights”, “support center means of communication” , “The Egyptian Association for Community Participation Enhancement,” “Society for Democratic Development”, “We See You Movement”, the “United Group”, and “Lawyers and Legal Advisers.”
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Translated by CS: http://www.dostor.org/الأخبار/قلب-مصر/113837-المنظمات-الحقوقية-تطالب-بإعادة-مرحلة-الاستفتاء-الأولى