Dear all:
As a proud Egyptian and American citizen, as well, I like to list some facts which I noticed in either my beloved Egypt or my beloved USA during the last elections which took place in both countries.
But before I start, I like to remind everyone that I wrote before to encourage everyone to elect and cast his vote for whoever he feels to be the best representative to his own view and for the overall goods of the society.
On november 2nd, 2010, you all know that all americans everywhere on the face of the globe , in the army services, embassy staffs, travelers, living in a different country than the USA..etc. was able to cast his vote either directly or by absentee ballot. It did not make any difference wherever you are, if you wanted to vote you will easly find a way. The result of this election came against our president Obama's desire and made him loose the majority in the congress in spite of his tireless campaign for the Democrates in every state. By his own admission, he lost badly and he will rethink his latest policies which casued his party to be destroyed as it did.
The Egyptians who are living abroad and especialy in the USA, I'm one of them, were not able to vote. Needless to mention about those who live in Saudi Arabia and gulf stated and also in Europe which is considered to be in access of 2 Million Egyptians. They all deserve to participate in selecting their representatives considering the huge amount of money the contribute to the Egyptian economy.
The way people vote: From what I saw on the TV stations how the front of the voting station is crouded and filled with police personals and undercovered agents and BALTAGIA. How can anyone feel safe to walk through them to the inside and cast his vote?. I will not even try.
When we go to vote, no one is alowed to stand at the enerance even if he is going to be elected for the presidency. For sure there is no presence to the police either in uniform or undercovered. This will guarantee the safe and secure envirnoment for the voter to cast his vote without any intimidation from anyone. Neither the candidate nor his representative is alowed near any of the voting station on election day.
As you go inside, you present your voting card and a lady will pull out the matching one on file, then she will leed you to the computer station or to the space behind the carton(in places where there is no Computers) and close the carton and leave. She is not alowed to stand next to you or advice you unless you ask for some kind of techincal assistance for how to run the voting machine. There is no Violet ink and if you tried to revote for the second time, your card has been already pulled out and the machine will never respond to you.
Some people, like what I saw on Egyptian TV news, will raise the issue of electing George Bush against Al Gore in spite of the fact that Al Gore won the majority of the public vote. This is to justify any election fraud anywhere in the world. If you understand the voting system in a presidential election, you will find that George Bush unforutionately won the election. Presidential election is decided by Electorial Voting of each state in the union and not by publice votes. This is to guarantee that all the states participate in selecting the president. Some states, like the ones in the Midwest have a total population smaller that a medium size city in a large state. If we go by public vote these states will have no chance in electing the president neither will never see any campaign from any candidate.
Before the election every candidate debates his oponent before the TV cameras and show their knowledge of the current issues. The moderator usualy is a very informed media individual and they take questions fro the audiences also. They do this for more that one time and it is up to the voters to make their mind. I was encouraged when I saw something like this among the parties in Egypt.
One thing I noticed that Minsters are running to be members of MAJLES EL SHAAB !!. This is not permited in the USA since all the minsters (Cabinet members as you call them here) are nominated by the president and confirmed by congress. It will be a clear case of conflict of interest and mixing the adminestrartive branch of the government with the judicial branch of it. The system of checks and balances will never be realized under this circumstances.
I know that I will be cretisized by making such comparison, but if you want to have a democratic society with a democratically elected representative you must see and study how to reach such a goal from societies where it is correctly applied.
All the best.
Dr. Aly Sharaf
ps. I ask forgiveness for writting in English. I have no Arabic Keyboard nor I can type in Arabic. It is real a shame.
