I "monitor" the Egyptian parliamentary elections

Patrick F. and Michelle S.'s head - at the polling station

The biggest news was that I was allowed to be there. Technically I was under the authority of an Egyptian NGO, but mostly I was just rubber-necking. The elections went well compared to the presidential election and was a bit more interesting . . . from what I'm hearing, the ruling NDP remains dominant, the Muslim Brotherhood picked up some seats, and the other opposition parties got beat like a rented mule.

The NDP (and the MB for that matter) was much in evidence at the polling station I attended. Although campaigning was legally barred 24 hours prior to the election, scores of party reps clustered near the entrance of the polling station. Even inside, young NDP'ers with their distinctive t-shirts and neck cords wandered around with party propaganda.

One man told our little student monitoring group that the "Look, I voted" finger ink was bogus. Another man, outside the polling station, said employees from the nearby Gezirah Sporting Club had been bussed in earlier that day. the deal was simple: vote for the NDP man, get paid 150 Egyptian pounds each. For many of them, that was a half-month's salary.

From a VOA article:

The monitoring group Shayfeencom reported that police briefly closed one polling station in Cairo's Sakakini district after the judge running it was caught stuffing the ballot box for the ruling National Democratic Party candidate. Voting resumed after the judge was replaced.

Ah, democracy. On the other hand, I got a cool Muslim Brotherhood pocket calendar -- dates on one side and "Islam is the Solution" slogan on the other.