egypt-final-presidential-elections-2012

The Carter Center
Presidential Election in Egypt
Adjudication of Fraud Complaints Regarding OCV
During Both Rounds of the Election: During the
first round of the election, complaints of group voting
emerged regarding the out-of-country voting taking
place in Saudi Arabia. During the second round,
the PEC conducted investigation into allegations
of group voting in OCV in both Saudi Arabia and
South Africa. In both instances, the investigations
were conducted in public, with candidate agents and
witnesses, including Carter Center witnesses, present
to witness the investigation and announcement of
findings.
Decisions in each of these cases were rendered by
the PEC following secret deliberations, although the
PEC secretary-general in all instances made public
announcements of the decisions as soon as they were
reached. After reviewing a sample of the envelopes in
which the Saudi Arabia-based ballots were mailed in
the first-round case, the PEC announced that there
was insufficient evidence of group voting and that the
votes were valid. Following a review of the secondround
ballots from the Saudi Arabia and South Africa
cases, the PEC ruled that the Saudi ballots were valid,
even though there was evidence that ballots had been
mailed together in groups of five or 10. (The PEC
explained that its decision was based on its understanding
of the communal nature of living conditions
for many Egyptians in that country.) The PEC invalidated
234 ballots sent to the Egyptian Embassy in
South Africa because of reports that they were delivered
to the postal service as a package by the same
individual. The PEC also invalidated an additional 20
of a reported 30 ballot envelopes mailed in a separate
package to the Egyptian Embassy in Pretoria because
of evidence of similarities in markings among those
20 envelopes.
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