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Al-Ahram Weekly 23 - 29 September 1999 Issue No. 448 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 23 - 29 September 1999 Issue No. 448
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Comment Focus Special Features Profile Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters The final touches
By Ahmed MoussaDescribing the referendum as a "national occasion on which the Egyptian people will proclaim a will for progress and prosperity," Interior Minister Habib El-Adli chaired on Monday a meeting of his top aides to review preparations for the nationwide poll.
According to Interior Ministry figures, 23,937,196 Egyptians are eligible to vote. They will cast ballots at 40,907 polling stations, manned by about 38,000 municipal and school officials, that will open between 8am and 5pm next Sunday. The votes will be counted at 302 "general" stations run by the judiciary.
The role of the police forces will be to secure the stations and the voters and transport the ballots from the polling stations to the "general" stations for counting. Any police presence inside the stations is banned. El-Adli will announce the result at a news conference on the following day.
"The people's support has turned the referendum into a national occasion on which the Egyptian people will proclaim to the world a will for progress and prosperity and their determination to safeguard the achievements of development and stability," El-Adli said. "All indications show that voters are intent on using their constitutional right, in affirmation of the sound exercise of democracy."
El-Adli issued instructions that information desks be set up at all police stations to offer assistance to voters and guide them to the polling stations where they are to cast ballots. He said he would make field tours throughout Sunday to ascertain that the balloting was taking place smoothly.
Answering a reporter's question, El-Adli said that President Hosni Mubarak's "eminent role, nationally, regionally and internationally, has laid down the foundations of domestic stability, of which he has become the symbol and the sponsor."
Achievements in the field of security could not have been made but for the basic changes introduced by Mubarak, placing state policies at the people's service, El-Adli said. As a result, all levels of society rallied around the president "in a historic march to revive Egypt's renaissance," El-Adli added.
The security achievements run in tandem with comprehensive development, the people's interests, the requirements of civil society and complete commitment to the supremacy of law, constitutional legality and the principles of human rights, he said.
Mubarak's instructions to the security forces are to preserve the nation's security and stability, respect the law, serve the homeland's supreme interests, deal with all on a footing of equality and guard public and private funds, El-Adli asserted.
