With a few mishaps, technical glitches and a disappointingly low voter turnout, Egyptian expats’ debut at the voting polls didn’t go as smoothly as some would have hoped. However, it did succeed in building a sense of pride and involvement with their homeland and put an end to years upon years of isolation. Egyptian expats have fought long and hard for their right to vote.

On November 17, less than two weeks before the parliamentary elections were set to begin, the Administrative Court ruled in favor of Egyptians living abroad, after a group of expats, backed by the Hisham Mubarak Law Center, filed a lawsuit against the chairman of the High Commission of Elections. “The decision to allow Egyptians to vote abroad was extremely important because they too are Egyptian and should have the right to participate in the country’s political life,” says Ambassador Ahmed Ragheb, assistant to the Minister of Foreign Affairs for Egyptian expatriates.

Issuing the right to vote abroad meant that Ragheb and his team at the ministry were forced to develop an intricate system in a short amount of time, and they happily obliged despite having to work up to 15 hours a day to get it up and running in time.  “The system we came up with was the best one we could develop in the time period we had,” says Ragheb.

“Everyone suffered from the time shortage, including us at the ministry.”

According to Tarek Saadawi, professor at the City University of New York and a board member of the Alliance of Egyptian Americans, the time shortage was what prevented many Egyptians abroad from registering — a mere 355,569 voters out of an estimated 11 million Egyptians living abroad were able to register in time. “Basically the deadline spread by word of mouth among Egyptian Americans, and as a result only a few managed to register,” says Saadawi.

“The consulates and embassies should have played a much stronger role in keeping their community aware, through their website or by direct email, of all steps of the elections and the deadlines.”

Ragheb believes another factor that may have resulted in low registration numbers was the High Commission of Elections’ requirement that voters register with their National Identification Card, which many Egyptians living abroad may not have.
“This is why we’re sending missions to different countries abroad to help people [obtain] a national ID card,” says Ragheb.
For the low number of registered voters, the complicated voting procedure presented further obstacles.

Tina Toma, a self-proclaimed globetrotter who has lived in eight different countries while accompanying her husband on his business endeavors, witnessed firsthand the complications that ensued beyond the ballot boxes.

Despite being away from home, Toma remains patriotic, which is why she jumped at the chance to help out by volunteering to monitor the electoral process at the embassy where she currently lives in Geneva, Switzerland.
“We got our right to vote through court, but they didn’t give us a chance to fully exercise that right,” says Toma. “We had to register and send in our votes in such a short period of time and without any instructions.”

As a result, she saw many votes get annulled due to misinterpretations of vague instructions or the absence of guidance altogether. “During the first phase of elections, a lot of votes weren’t counted because [voters] either sent in the two pages that had the votes on them rather than sending the full eight pages, or because they didn’t include the covering letter,” she explains.

Toma points out that the embassy in Geneva was actually quite organized and helpful compared to other countries, noting how Sherif Eissa, the Egyptian ambassador in Geneva, reached out to Egyptians of lower classes living in Switzerland by going out to Egyptian coffee shops and talking to the people there. Other countries, such as Holland and France, were not as lucky, according to Toma.

“They [embassy staff] told some people that they need their Egyptian passport to vote, when that isn’t true. And in another incident, a group of young men went to the Dutch embassy to register for voting, instead they took their information and registered them at the embassy,” asserts Toma.
“Some things were done on purpose.”

Ragheb says it is important for Egypt right now to be in touch with its human resources abroad as they represent a strong economic and intellectual force. “I hope it signals a new era of cooperation from Egyptians living abroad,” says Ragheb.

“It’s their duty to their country to contribute to the next phase in Egypt. Anyone who feels that they are involved in the decision-making also feels a sense of belonging to the country.”

For Saadawi, the right to vote opened up new doors to the approximately 200,000 Egyptians living in the United States whom his organization represents. “The political will wasn’t there until the recent court ruling that forced the government to implement our right to vote.

Egyptian-Americans will contribute to Egypt’s advancement professionally, economically and with their involvement and interactions with Egypt.” et