We have a problem with voters' lists. Some of our eligible voters cannot get their names on the lists, while others get their names on the lists in an erratic fashion. We have cases where names are added by hand to the lists at the last moment, or added collectively as in the case of government departments and companies. Some names look exactly the same. Other names disappear from the lists for no apparent reason. And apparently we allow dead people and immigrants to vote. Names of the same voters often appear on more than one list. And in some cases the same constituency had more than one list, and these were not identical. These are matters that discourage voters and encourage fraud.
So far, the Ministry of Interior has been in charge of updating the lists, and has not done a great job. Perhaps it's time an independent and neutral agency took charge of revamping the voters' lists. The judiciary can do it, so can the Higher Council for Human Rights or even a select committee from political parties and public figures. I suggest that we abolish the existing lists and begin using the computerised national number cards as voting cards. We need to get the names of eligible voters into one centrally controlled computer system. We need to abolish collective registration at workplaces, as it proved to be a source of irregularities in the past. We need to establish a method of transparency, so the public can have access to voters' lists and some vetting is done. Last but not least, we need to revise articles 15-19 from the exercise of political rights law, so as to facilitate the updating of the said lists.
This week's Soapbox speaker is a political expert at the Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies.
Recommend
Comment
Printer-friendly
We have a problem with voters' lists. Some of our eligible voters cannot get their names on the lists, while others get their names on the lists in an erratic fashion. We have cases where names are added by hand to the lists at the last moment, or added collectively as in the case of government departments and companies. Some names look exactly the same. Other names disappear from the lists for no apparent reason. And apparently we allow dead people and immigrants to vote. Names of the same voters often appear on more than one list. And in some cases the same constituency had more than one list, and these were not identical. These are matters that discourage voters and encourage fraud.
