The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights

    The  national coalition for monitoring elections  held its first  preparatory meetings for monitoring  the presidential  and parliamentary elections on Tuesday, 19/1/2010 at EOHR’s office.

Mr. Hafez Abu Seada,  secretary general of EOHR  and the general coordinator of the coalition, clarified  that the coalition will prepare a geographical report in governorates and constituencies which will be monitored in the next parliamentary elections in order to coordinate among  observers of organizations - members of the coalition- to confront any violation committed against observers or candidates . Members of coalitions (148 organizations on  the governorates level)  will be distributed to active  organizations and affiliated organizations, the active group includes the organizations which mainly undertake the field and media monitoring for the various stages of the electoral process, while the affiliated organizations will not play a direct role in the electoral process , Abu Seada added.  He pointed out that observers will be appointed in their places of registration so that they can access to the poll stations  as voters and monitor the process from inside during casting their votes and to carry out the full monitoring out side the poll stations .

The general coordinator of the coalition confirmed that such a specific communication will be among observers in the coalition to deal with any problems they may encounter during the monitoring process. Also the organizations agreed  to design a standardized badges on behalf of the coalition for observers in different governorates,  the badges  will be delivered to every observer to be shown later .

Members of the coalition called upon civil society organizations concerned with human rights in all governorates to join the coalition and to participate in the electoral monitoring to ensure the neutrality and impartiality of the next presidential and legislative elections. Also they agreed to form  specialist secretaries and qualitative poll stations and consultative committee from public figures who are known by their  impartiality and experience in monitoring elections . It is decided to prepare a founding document for the coalition including a definition for the coalition , funding resources, standards and rules of its work, goals and mechanisms. Members of the coalition called upon all governmental institutions , political parties, candidates and mass media to cooperate   in order to facilitate its  duties in order to ensure a free and fair elections.  

It is worth noting that The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights was one of the members of the Egyptian Committee for following -up  the elections which was  formed to monitor the legislative elections in 1995,  also  EOHR  monitored  elections in 2000, while in 2005  EOHR undertook the task of   general coordinator for  the civil coalition for monitoring elections.