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Islamist vote machine cranks up in Egypt election

by Reuters
Monday, 28 November 2011 18:58 GMT

* New Islamist groups challenge Muslim Brotherhood

* Many parties flout ban on last-minute campaigning

By Shaimaa Fayed and Maha Dahan

DAMIETTA, Egypt, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Islamist party organisers offered to guide Egyptian voters at crowded polling stations on Monday and exploited lax supervision to hustle for last-minute votes in the first election since a popular revolt toppled President Hosni Mubarak.

As Egyptians formed long queues in Cairo and Alexandria to cast the first free vote of their lives, Muslim Brotherhood workers greeted them and explained the complex voting system.

Asked by a voter who she worked for, a woman Brotherhood worker in Cairo named its Freedom and Justice Party (FJP).

"Is that the Brotherhood? Is that who I should vote for?" he asked.

"I am not here to tell you who to vote for, only to explain how the system works," she replied. Later a Reuters reporter heard her asking voters to choose the Freedom and Justice Party.

Banned under Mubarak, the Brotherhood is eyeing a decisive win in a staggered parliamentary vote that will end in January.

Its formidable grass-roots presence suggests it has the most to gain from an election overseen by officials with a light touch, who may not even know the rules such as those banning campaigning at polling stations.

But new rivals like the ultra-orthodox Salafi Al-Nour Party and moderate Islamist Wasat Party have well-oiled campaign machines of their own and threaten to take votes from the Brotherhood, making competition fierce.

The Brotherhood's party was not the only one flouting a ban on canvassing near voting queues on the first day of polling.

In the northern port city of Damietta, Nour and FJP banners vied for attention over the entrances to polling stations. At one, voters queued according to their preferred party, with one line for the FJP and a longer one for Nour.

The two parties had pitched campaign tents to lobby voters as they arrived.

In Cairo, a man walked through voter queues handing out flyers for candidate Mohamed el-Ghobasy, who called himself the "Ambassador Of The Poor".

Some in the queue mocked the slogan and warned him not to try to influence their votes.

BASEBALL CAPS, PLACARDS

Outside polling stations in Alexandria and elsewhere, Brotherhood workers with laptops and printers "helped" voters by punching in their identity card numbers and then printing a paper carrying their names identifying where they should vote.

On the other side of the paper, were the names of FJP candidates and their voting symbol.

A minibus covered in FJP posters toured rain-muddied streets of Cairo's working-class Shubra neighbourhood delivering a pro-Brotherhood message over loudspeakers.

Outside one Cairo polling station, Brotherhood activists wearing FJP baseball caps held up placards advertising its candidates for the constituency. Others handed out pamphlets.

Party workers distributing flyers for rival candidates appeared outnumbered.

In some areas, officials supposed to secure the vote seemed to treat FJP workers as part of the team supervising the polls.

A woman approached Ameed Refaat Hassan, a security official helping to oversee the election in the northern city of Alexandria, saying she could not find the right polling station.

"Go outside where the computers are. The sisters there will help you find your name on the machine," he replied, referring to the Brotherhood's women election agents.

In Shubra, Brotherhood workers set up a table to help voters find their registration numbers. Its activists vastly outnumbered those of rival parties.

"The Freedom and Justice Party calls on you to pick its list," a Muslim Brotherhood worker told voters over a loudspeaker system, his message only interrupted by the call to prayer from a nearby mosque.

Other members of the group were handing out FJP pamphlets.

Asked whether such activities breached election regulations, Brotherhood activist Oussama Ahmad, 21, said: "When they say there shouldn't be electoral propaganda, they mean marches, conferences and so on. But you must have people by the polling stations familiarising the voters with the system." (Additional reporting by Tom Perry, Dina Zayed and Marwa Awad; Writing by Tom Pfeiffer; Editing by Alistair Lyon)

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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