egypt-final-presidential-elections-2012

The Carter Center
Voter Registration
Maurice Chammah
A
comprehensive and inclusive voter registration
process is internationally recognized
as a key means of ensuring universal suffrage
and the enjoyment of the fundamental right to
vote (and in Egypt the right to be elected). 79 With
the twofold purpose of verifying voter eligibility and
controlling the balloting process, voter registration
can significantly improve the electoral process and
A voter signs his name on the list during polling on June 16,
2012.
its credibility. Voter registration for the presidential
election was opened on Feb. 23, one day after the end
of the second round of the Shura Council elections.
It remained open until March 8, 2012. The accreditation
of witnessing organizations occurred after voter
registration was over and, therefore, did not provide
The Carter Center and other domestic or international
organizations an opportunity to witness the voter
registration process. Based on the Center’s limited
access, the following analysis is offered.
Ahead of the parliamentary elections in 2011,
the SJCE introduced a revised approach to the
preparation of the voters’ list. It adopted the NID,
a continuous civil registration system, as its primary
source of data. 80 The SJCE established a permanent
committee for administering the update process for
the voters’ list.
PEC Decision No. 2 of 2012 added a member to
the SJCE committee and directed it to start its duties
on Feb. 23, 2012. These duties included preparing
the voters’ list for the presidential election under the
same protocols used previously. The NID is closed
on the day that the announcement of the election is
made and is then cross-matched against other state
entity systems to exclude people who do not meet the
eligible criteria. 81 For the presidential election, the
NID was closed as of March 8, 2012. Under Egypt’s
legal framework, to be eligible to vote, a voter must
be 18 years of age, an Egyptian citizen, and must
have not lost his or her political rights. 82 As noted,
members of the security forces (armed forces and
police) are not entitled to vote.
According to the PEC, the voters’ registry for the
parliamentary elections included 50,390,000 records. 83
At the closure for the registration process for the
presidential election on March 8, 2012, the number
of records had increased to 50,990,000. During the
registration phase, around 1 million voters had been
added to the voters’ list by the PEC. According to
the PEC, most of these numbers were either citizens
79 U.N., Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 21(3);
UNHRC, General Comment 25, para. 11; International IDEA,
International IDEA International Electoral Standards: Guidelines for
Reviewing the Legal Framework of Elections, p. 45
80 The Civil Registry allows for Egyptians to register for a national ID
from the age of 16 years.
81 Article 10, Law on the Exercise of Political Rights
82 Articles 2, 3, and 4, Law on the Exercise of Political Rights: those
convicted of a felony (without an expungment), a range of other offenses
(including some misdemeanors), a person deemed mentally incompetent,
or those declared bankrupt for a period of five years from the date they
declared bankruptcy. Also people who were recently naturalized (less than
five years) are not eligible to vote.
83 Meeting with The Carter Center on June 7, 2012
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