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Africa: North |
Egypt's vote marred by fraud charges |
2005-09-08 |
![]() The leading opposition candidate, Ayman Nour, charged the elections "are not fair at all," and vowed to reject rigged results. But Osama Attawiya, spokesman for the country's election commission, said the group had received no major complaints or reports of problems. A top official in the other major opposition party, Sayed Badawy of the Wafd, said that while fraud and intimidation were apparent: "This is the first time for a president to reach out to the citizens and ask for their support. This is a positive thing." He and several independent monitoring groups said they expected turnout to be low, despite government predictions of high turnout. The number of voters might indicate whether recent calls for reform have shaken ordinary Egyptians out of an apathy generated by years of stagnation. In Washington, State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack said the US was following the election closely and called the vote "a beginning." "These elections really mark a historic departure for Egypt, in the fact that you have multi-candidate presidential elections. I think it's safe to say that Egyptians have not seen a presidential election like the one they have just seen in their lifetimes," he told reporters. |
Posted by:Fred |