Haitham Saeed - Emad Sameh
Yesterday, Saturday evening, the local international mission held a consultative meeting with the various Egyptian organizations and associations that obtained permits from the Supreme Elections Committee to monitor the upcoming parliamentary elections.
The aim of the meeting was to reach a compromise formula between the Egyptian organizations to form a broader and more comprehensive alliance between the different organizations, according to the initiative called for by the international mission through its local ally, Maat Foundation for Peace, Development and Human Rights.
This initiative aims to reach a consensual formula for collective action between organizations during the election monitoring process, whereby each organization monitors one violation during monitoring and follow-up, and then a more general and comprehensive report is issued at the end of each stage, so that the report includes all the violations that the organizations monitored.
The meeting was attended by heads and representatives of more than 20 human rights organizations and associations, most notably: Saeed Abdel-Hafez, director of the Dialogue Forum, Walaa Gad al-Karim, founder of Partners for Transparency, Rabab Abdo Abdel Fattah from the Egyptian Association for Juvenile Aid, Mahmoud al-Badawi for the “Watch Ya Masry” campaign, Muhammad Kamal Hassan on The Egyptian Federation for Human Rights, the National Society for Human Rights and about it Muhammad Ibrahim, Ahmed Al-Sharif, on the authority of the leaders, Egypt first about it Jumah Soliman, the Egyptians United for Human Rights and about it Abdul Jawad Abdullah, the Egypt Alliance for Human Rights and on it Hani Al-Nabawy Al-Sayed, Muhammad Abdel Salam for the Egyptian Federation for Human Rights Othman Ramadan, on the Egyptian Pact for Human Rights.
The meeting started with the presentation of an explanatory video, which is a documentary film documenting the efforts made by the local international mission in monitoring previous elections.
The meeting was chaired by Dr. Yousry El-Ezaby, a political researcher at Al-Ahram Strategic Center, who spoke at the outset about the importance of this alliance in monitoring the parliamentary elections and its role in avoiding many of the previous negatives and its role in reaching the greatest degree of integrity in the electoral process.
Then Ayman Aqeel, head of Maat Foundation for Peace, Development and Human Rights and the official spokesperson for the mission said that the coalition called for aims to join the efforts of the organizations through a cooperative formula and through joint collective action to reach the maximum possible efficiency in monitoring all violations during the electoral process and reaching the maximum amount of Geographical coverage to cover all electoral districts.
Akil added: “The idea of this initiative is new and innovative, and for the first time it is taking place in Egypt. It also represents a strong addition in the election monitoring process to reach the highest standards of electoral integrity, and to preserve international principles of rights and freedoms that guarantee electoral integrity.”
At the end of his speech, Ayman Aqil asked, "Is it possible for there to be an operations room that includes this coalition?"
The attendees discussed the possibility of forming this coalition and its implementation mechanisms, setting up a clear mechanism for writing the final reports issued by the coalition, as well as appointing a responsible body to assess the daily statements of the coalition's correspondents, allocating an operations room in which all violations are represented and determining the operational standards through which the goal is defined to ensure the highest levels of efficiency. In monitoring and following up the electoral process.
At the end of the meeting, the meeting resulted in the formation of a participatory committee to discuss the mechanisms and foundations of the joint Egyptian alliance, which was announced by Ayman Aqil, the general coordinator of the mission, and the attendees appreciated him.
Representatives of community organizations decided, during their meeting, yesterday, Saturday, that the committee would be formed of 7 individuals, including Saeed Abdul Hafez, Director of the Dialogue Forum, Dr. Walaa Jad Al-Karim, Director of the Partners Foundation for Transparency, human rights defender Rabab Abdo, human rights defender Ihab Ragheb, Muhammad Ibrahim, and two Another two are women representatives, and it is headed by Dr. Yousry El-Ezaby, a political researcher at Al-Ahram Strategic Center
As everyone agreed, there should be an email dedicated to sending the proposals of associations and organizations not represented in the committee within three days, starting from Sunday.
