PDAS CHENEY DISCUSSES ELECTIONS WITH EGYPTIAN

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 CAIRO 007794

SIPDIS

NSC FOR ABRAMS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/10/2015
TAGS: PGOV KDEM EG
SUBJECT: PDAS CHENEY DISCUSSES ELECTIONS WITH EGYPTIAN
INTERIOR MINISTER

REF: CAIRO 7155

Classified by DCM Stuart Jones for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).

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Summary
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1. (C) During a September 29 meeting, NEA PDAS Elizabeth
Cheney and DAS Scott Carpenter discussed with Interior
Minister General Habib El-Adly preparations for Egypt's
parliamentary elections. Adly insisted that police and other
security personnel would adhere to strict neutrality through
the electoral process, and attributed most past charges of
interference to sour grapes from losing candidates. Adly
acknowledged that there were problems with the voters lists,
but asserted that MOI strictly applied the law with regard to
maintaining and controlling them. Adly claimed MOI would
step up voter information campaigns and would try to avoid
even the appearance of intimidation. In this regard, Adly
announced that he had decided "to act on the U.S.
Ambassador's advice" and move those polling places currently
in police stations to neutral venues. Adly said he had no
objection to the introduction of transparent ballot boxes,
but predicted Egyptian judges would perceive such an
initiative as a slight. We have since learned that the MOI
may be moving ahead on its own with transparent boxes. End
summary.

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Watchword Neutrality
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2. (C) Adly affirmed that Egyptian security forces would be
strictly neutral during the process. Adly dismissed
complaints that Egyptian police had intervened on behalf of
ruling party candidates during the 2000 parliamentary
elections, characterizing the charges as sour grapes from
candidates who failed to compete effectively. Adly noted
that 17 members associated with the Muslim Brotherhood had
won seats in the 2000 elections, citing this fact as evidence
of the Ministry of Interior's neutrality: "they never would
have won if I had been dictating the results" he stated. At
the same time, Adly continued, police have a duty to maintain
public order and sometimes have to intervene when violence
between supporters of rival candidates erupts. A number of
such incidents occurred in 2000, he stated, particularly in
the Nile Delta.

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Voter List Woes
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3. (C) PDAS Cheney asked Adly about problems with the voter
lists, maintained by the Ministry of Interior. Flaws in the
voter list were the single biggest problem in the September 7
presidential election, according to both domestic election
monitors and assessments by NDI and IRI. Adly acknowledged
that the lists were riddled with imperfections, but insisted
that the MOI adhered rigorously to the law in maintaining the
lists. According to the law, the Minister stated, citizens
have an annual three month window, between December and
March, to add or correct entries in the voter lists.
Citizens born after 1981 are automatically entered onto the
voter list, he added.


4. (C) PDAS Cheney also asked the Minister about reports that
many deceased citizens continue to haunt the voter lists
(observers contend these dead voters are often put to work by
persons tampering with elections). Adly acknowledged that
the GOE encountered difficulties in purging the lists of the
deceased. Many old civil records are handwritten the
Minister explained, and names get garbled at the data entry
process. Citizens have a responsibility to ensure their
names are correctly registered, but too few actually exercise
this responsibility, he added, because Egypt has not had,
"for certain historical reasons," a strong "culture of
political participation."


5. (C) On complaints that opposition parties had not had the
opportunity to review voter lists in advance of the September
7 elections, Adly insisted that these had been the
instructions of the Presidential Elections Commission -- the
lists were not to be distributed in advance to any party. He
was surprised by claims that the ruling NDP had received
advance copies of the lists. "Some of the opposition claims
distort reality," he stated.

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More Information, Less Intimidation
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6. (C) The MOI was stepping up its public information
campaign, Adly stated, in newspapers, radio, and television,
in order to be sure citizens had adequate information about
where, when, and how to vote. Adly lamented that sometimes
MOI initiatives to encourage participation were
misinterpreted as intimidation. He recounted that the MOI
had called off past efforts to deliver voter cards to voters'
residences, after the ministry had been accused of attempting
to frighten citizens into voting for Mubarak. In the same
vein, Adly added "I have decided to act on the advice of your
new Ambassador (reftel),and I have ordered that all polling
places located in police stations be moved to alternate
sites." (Comment: The decision to move voting out of police
stations, based on a recommendation by U.S.-led assessment
teams that watched the Sept. 7 presidential election, is a
positive development. End comment.)

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Party Penetration
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7. (C) PDAS Cheney asked the Minister about reports that
State Security elements penetrate opposition parties in order
to monitor them. Adly at first seemed taken aback but
quickly found his stride, stating that he was aware of such
charges, and reprised the theme that the MOI is often
scapegoated by uncompetitive candidates and parties. When
PDAS Cheney pressed on whether there would be a change in
policy on the issue of infiltration of opposition parties,
Adly replied, &I must have my people there because I need to
know what is going on on the ground.8 (Comment: We noted
that Adly did not explicitly deny the charge. We judge
claims that State Security closely monitors party activity,
to include paying or implanting informers, as generally
credible. In Ayman Nour's criminal forgery trial, his entire
defense rests upon claims that he was framed by State
Security elements which penetrated the Ghad Party. End
comment.)

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Transparent Boxes
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8. (C) Finally, PDAS Cheney asked the Minister about the
possibility of using transparent ballot boxes in the coming
elections. Such boxes have become standard in many parts of
the world, she noted, and were an important symbol of a
transparent electoral process. Adly was non-committal in his
response, predicting that judges charged with overseeing the
elections would perceive the move as a slight to their
integrity. "The judges have been stubborn on so many
issues," he stated. "Personally, I have no objection to the
idea," Adly added. (Comment: We have since heard that MOI
may be moving forward with its own procurement of transparent
ballot boxes for the parliamentary elections. According to
the prominent lawyer Mona Zulficar, who met the PDAS and DAS
on September 29, and who has been undertaking a private
initiative to urge the GOE to adopt the boxes, the MOI is
seeking to procure transparent boxes on its own. An MOI
source told us that the transparent box issue was "under
active consideration" but would not confirm whether a
decision has been made. End comment.)


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