The Alliance of Egyptian-Americans (AEA) said expatriate Egyptians are “confused and frustrated” by conflicting statements from government officials and the National Democratic Party (NDP) leaders on whether they will be able to vote in the forthcoming presidential election.
Sabri al-Baja, vice president of the AEA, said that after Minister of Manpower Aisha Abdel Hadi had said expatriate Egyptians will be able to vote in the 2011 presidential election, on the instruction of the President himself, Mohamed Kamal, a senior leader NDP leader, gave televised statements to the contrary.
Al-Baja said that he telephoned Kamal to verify the information, and that Kamal once again said that it would be difficult to allow expats to vote.
Al-Baja added that when he asked Kamal whether Mubarak had given any direction in the matter as earlier stated by Abdel Hadi, Kamal said that Aisha had been talking about the presidential and not the parliamentary elections and that, in any case, a decision has not been reached on the presidential election either.
Al-Baja further added that Egyptian officials seemed to be giving clear assertions that expats will have the right to vote in the coming elections.
Depriving expatriate Egyptians of the right to vote makes the election “unconstitutional”, al-Baja cited Mufeed Shehab, minister of state for legal affairs and parliamentary councils, as saying.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
