“The odds are stacked unevenly in Egypt’s upcoming poll”

The Egyptians are voting today to elect a president among ten candidates. It is likely that Hosni Mubarak be reelected, who has been in power for 24 years. In fact, despite the appearances, the conditions of such activity are far from being fair, since Mubarak has the recognition of his name, practically the monopoly of the electronic media controlled by the States and 85% of the written media. In addition, all members of the Election Commission were appointed by himself.
Since the year 2000, a decision made by the Supreme Court provides that 8 000 Egyptian judges should supervise the elections and certify the results. But the government ignored this measure to avoid being subjected to a decision that would ensure the overall control of the elections. The regime expanded the definition of “judge” and the results showed that the party in power had more points when a pseudo-judge controlled the voting but not when a real judge did. Justice has required that independent observers may control the elections, but the president of the Election Commission refused and it appears that he is in an awkward situation.
There is a debate in the opposition between those who urge the boycott and those who recommend to go to the polls. The Muslim Brothers have urged their supporters to vote conscientiously, but not for Mubarak. Today, about 34 organizations of the civil society prepare thousands of young Egyptians to supervise the elections despite the objections of the government. The regime’s response is that foreign inspections interfere with the Egyptian sovereignty and the presence of local observers would be an offense to the integrity of the judges. This argument did not make much cense because the judges themselves recommended having the presence of independent observers.
The fact that the Mubarak regime fears that local and foreign opinions had challenged him to hold free and fair elections, or just that he was unable to eliminate the fraud within the party, inherent to its functioning, makes the current situation not to spark any positive result regarding the vote counting. However, it is the first challenge to tyranny, exciting for the Egyptians.