And she is back , she is more than happy and does not care if she wins or loses because for the first time in her life she knows that her vote will count. Ok I am trying to be her professional as much as I can. Today was another historical day in our modern history regardless of its result , I think many Egyptians will remember it with me. As I expected this is the highest turn out in the electoral history of modern Egypt , even more than I have ever imagined. It can reach to 40 million voters today. I went to my polling center in Agouza , the famous Kowmia language school of Agouza as usual and I did not think for one second that I would see that scene. Since 2005 “my first voting experience” , I have never seen those people before whether from number or from class. There were these long queues inside and outside the school.
Outside the school
Inside the school
People were very civilized , they did not complain that they were and are standing in long queues for hours on the contrary. They were waiting with happiness. When I went it was mostly middle class. It is the biggest participation for the middle class in the political process as far as I can tell. Most of those people have never voted before. There were high participation from senior citizens , women and Christians , in fact when I think about I believe it was just whole Egypt was in the committee.
Old ladies in polling center
I saw whole families from parents and children. There were these cute adorable babies brought with their moms “One of the babies had pink finger”.
Two queues One for women One for men
There were very few police officers , I think I saw three officers and soldiers while there were two army soldiers , they were all standing outside and did not speak with the people or ask for their IDs as they had once done with me before. I can’t keep myself from comparing between this experience and previous voting experiences.The ladies have their own queue and the men have their own queue , of course the ladies’ queue is much faster. The volunteers were organizing the whole process. People were helping the senior citizens ,letting them pass first and even later the volunteers and the committee made a room for senior citizens. There were chairs for pregnant ladies as well. People are disciplined and serious.
The ballot boxes and ballot sheets reportedly finished , already for the first time in my life I went to that committee to find full four ballot boxes for real. I swear in the last parliamentary elections I saw a ballot box with one single ballot sheet. I tried to take photos from inside the committee but the judge in the committee refused and I was in the verge of having a fight with him because I am not a journalist and I got no authorization from the elections committees.
Full box by real votes
My finger to Nazif , Soliman and Mubarak
Still when he turned back , I took couple of snapshots. I voted with my national ID , the man wrote my full name and my national ID number then I signed it. I noticed that he used another another form for those who were not from the area. There were blue curtains yet it seems that many people did not use them and decided to cast their vote in front of the whole world. Of course I am an old school girl who loves privacy and thus I casted the vote behind the curtain after checking the ballot sheet and making sure it was stamped. I made my choice and it was “Yes”. I put my ballot sheet in the box that seemed to be so full and took back my id and I went to have my holy voting ritual : The pink finger
Just I was leaving more people seemed to be coming. Voting girl left the polling center so happy and so proud of her people. I was like that little girl playing in the school playground while waiting for her daddy to finish his duty
I think millions of Egyptians today gave their pink finger respectfully to Hosni Mubarak, Omar Soliman and Ahmed Nazif who once doubted that we , the great people of Egypt would understand and practice real democracy. Speaking about NDP , now I am more certain insh Allah that we do not need to disband it or suspend its activities , because it will not get a single seat in any election in the future. The NDP used to cheat in the elections when it was ruling the country from iron fist , it used to close polling stations and scare people from going there for God sake. This is why I have more confidence in the Egyptian people , we will not be silent anymore. Already in way to the polling centerI was receiving tweets from all over Egypt telling me that the turn out has been extremely high since 8 AM when the doors of the polling stations were opened. Huge queues are all over the polling stations.My aunt went to the polling center in Zamalak at 9 AM but she could not vote due to the huge number of people there. Of course it was the only polling station in Zamalak and you can imagine how many people were there. She went to Kasr Al Dobarah committee where she found Khaled Youssef , George Isaac, Amr Hamzawy and Mona Makram Abid. She declined to speak with Al Masry Al Youm's reporters there as well."Zeinobia's aunt is shy :P" This was the first voting experience for my younger aunt. She did not see Amr Moussa whom the people let pass to vote despite he stood first at a queue nor did she see the governor of Cairo kicked from that polling station for not standing at the queue waiting for his turn. "The governor later apologized and claimed that he was not going to vote but rather to check the situation"Moussa made a little press conference to speak about his presidential candidacy and also Libya. He then later traveled to Paris to discuss the Libyan issue with Sarko and other NATO leaders.
Dr. ElBaradei is furious and he has to. Some people I know say that he should have gone to that populated area in Moktam , I think it is a little bit elitist as a presidential candidate he should go to everything area in Egypt as he wants safely. Here is his car and if I were in his place I will be mad and sad.
By Nancy Kamal
I feel so so angry but it was a deliberate act as in all those polling stations , there has not been a single incident of violence as far as I know then we have to wonder. Pope Shnouda voted in Shubra right after returning from a treatment trip in the States. He voted against the amendments.
Pope Shnouda "AP"
PM Essam Sharaf surprised the people at the poll station at Gamal Abdel Nasser school in Dokki , he tried to stand in the queue but the people insisted to let him pass first as today is not a holiday for him.
Dr. Essam Sharaf "AP"
There was an old lady who stopped him to complain from something and he listened to her complaint. I like this man so much. Amr Diab voted , Mohamed Moneer voted , Amr Adeeb voted , Heikal voted and all stood in queues with all respect and civilization. Forget about these celebs and look to these long queues in 6th of October governorate and Nasr City Most of the problems I have heard about in the referendum as far as I could are related to the organizing part of the process. Despite the referendum date was announced from weeks ago yet it was organized so late and so fast. There are sheets that were not stamped and the election supreme committee quickly said that we should tell the the judges to sign the sheets if they have not got a stamp. The army is doing a fine job as far as I could tell. The army is reportedly transferring judges to Upper Egypt with helicopters. The polling stations would be opened till 7 PM except for Qena where the polling stations will be opened till 9 PM because of the delay of judges. As I hinted earlier whatever the referendum results are , Egypt will win in fact it has already won. Here is a photo gallery from the photos I took on that day.
I think millions of Egyptians today gave their pink finger respectfully to Hosni Mubarak, Omar Soliman and Ahmed Nazif who once doubted that we , the great people of Egypt would understand and practice real democracy. Speaking about NDP , now I am more certain insh Allah that we do not need to disband it or suspend its activities , because it will not get a single seat in any election in the future. The NDP used to cheat in the elections when it was ruling the country from iron fist , it used to close polling stations and scare people from going there for God sake. This is why I have more confidence in the Egyptian people , we will not be silent anymore.
