At a school in a popular district of Cairo, a man urges Egyptians to vote on a key electoral reform, crying ”Your vote matters! Say yes to democracy” — but many polling stations on Wednesday remained deserted amid opposition calls for a boycott.
The man with the loudhailer was largely addressing an empty street outside the school in Cairo’s Sayeda Zeinab neighbourhood.
Few residents appeared willing to vote, through either opposition or apathy, despite a call by President Hosni Mubarak for people to ”vote actively” in the referendum to allow for the first-ever contested presidential race.
Where voters did turn up, there was a hint of pressure in the air.
”The headmaster asked us to vote and, from what I gathered, I’d better come,” said one female teacher on condition of anonymity.
In Cairo’s Qawmiya secondary school, most of those seen turning up to cast their ballots were also local teachers.
One also confided she had come to vote ”because we were told we would be penalised if we failed to show up”.
Those publicly opposing the referendum were met in one spot by club-wielding police. A demonstration called by the left-wing umbrella organisation Kefaya (Enough) was violently dispersed, news agency AFP’s reporters witnessed.
About 20 people had gathered by Saad Zaghlul mausoleum, a landmark spot in central Cairo, and several were arrested. One of the group’s co-founders, Gamal Fahmy, and another activist were beaten up with batons.
The opposition complains that the proposed amendment severely restricts independent candidates and overwhelmingly favours the ruling party, which has faced an unprecedented wave of protests in recent months.
Back at Qawmiya school, whose facade was covered in banners reading ”Yes to Mubarak! Yes to more reforms! Yes to constitutional change!”, those who had voted said they had ticked the ”yes” box.
But many admitted that they had no clue as to why.
”I said yes because I don’t understand anything. I tried to read what’s written on the ballot paper, but I didn’t get it,” said Nadia.
The old constitutional clause and the amended text are spelled out on one side of the white slip. The other side has two boxes for voters — to tick ”yes”, written in green letters, or ”no”, in black script.
”I said yes to the president, of course, because what we know is better than what we don’t know,” said another woman.
But local teacher Assayed Mohammed said he voted ”yes because voting no is even worse — it means that nothing would change”.
About 54 000 polling stations opened at 6am GMT in schools countrywide and were due to close at 4pm GMT.
Given the low rates of registration by new voters, the government has said that those listed on the electoral roll can vote in the referendum by simply showing their papers.
The opposition charged that this would encourage fraud if papers were not systematically checked.
In Cairo’s Barb al-Sharia neighbourhood, a police officer outside a local school offered an explanation for the initial low turnout.
”We didn’t have a lot of electors so far, but we’re expecting some more this afternoon. After all, Egyptians are not early risers,” said Nasser Galal.
In the village of Nahiya just outside Cairo, only 15 electors had cast their ballots, though about 12 000 voters are registered in this district.
Police stopped journalists from taking photographs of the empty school and its 20 ballot boxes.
In an eve-of-polling-day address, Mubarak told Egypt’s 32,5-million registered voters: ”The last word is yours. I have complete trust in your will to participate to open new horizons for our political life.”
But pro-reform groups rubbished the president’s claims and called for nationwide protests on polling day. — Sapa-AFP