Witnessing the count in Damietta

We arrived at the Court House in Damietta at 8.30pm. The immediate area was only accessible on foot and for authorised vehicles. There were two tanks outside the main entrance. We watched vehicles arriving with ballot boxes, some accompanied by soldiers. Some of the vehicles were closed, others open bed trucks. The boxes were off loaded from the vehicles and taken to the counting area behind the Court House. Although security was heavy at the gate, with soldiers and military police, almost anyone could have offered to assist carry in a ballot box.

There was a growing crowd outside, perhaps 1500 people. We were prevented by the military police from entering however Judge Mohammed Attia came outside and accompanied us in. Under his “protection” as he said, we were able to pass through three layers of security. At the entrance to the counting room Mohamed showed his NGO observer card and I showed my unofficial ID, on the basis of which our group of four were let into the count. We were among the first into a large tent (about 50 metres by 120 metres) of the type used for weddings and celebrations, with decorated wall cloths and chandelier style lighting. It was divided into pens, each about 50 by 10 metres, with clusters of tables and chairs. None were numbered. Each polling station team appropriated the tables and chairs they needed and waited for their boxes to arrive. There was a top table for the supervisor and assistants of the Higher Election Commission (HEC) but we did not see any designated area for observers or the media.

At 10.15pm the boxes from our polling station arrived at the count. None of the seals were broken. The judge oversaw the opening and emptying on to the table of the contents of the first box (individual candidates, day 1) and the assistants (all public officials) started counting the ballot papers. Each pile was counted by two people independently. The totals didn’t quite match but the judge accepted the second number because it matched the count at the polling station. This formed the baseline against which votes cast were to be checked.

Having counted the number of ballot papers, at 11.00pm they started checking that each ballot paper is correct, that is having two, and only two, candidates selected. At this point the supervisor of the count announced a 500 Egyptian Pounds bonus for the workers, which drew a round of applause. By 11.30pm the spoiled ballots had been checked and set to one side. They amounted to around 3-5 per cent of the total. It then began to rain heavily and we saw water leaking through the seams of the canvas roof on to the counting teams and the tables. We had to move to prevent the ballot papers getting wet. The officials used their jackets to protect the election materials.

After ten minutes the rain eased off and the counting team moved onto the second box of ballot papers (party lists, day 1), unfolding them and setting them out in piles. At the same time the judge, with one assistant, started counting the votes for the individual candidates. The counting was done on plain paper, checked against the total ballots cast, and later entered neatly onto the official counting sheets. At midnight other members of the counting team began counting the party list votes. They wrote down the tally first on a scrap piece of paper rather than the official counting forms. There were four people involved, working in pairs, one reading the candidate names and the other making the record. There were no pens, blank paper or calculators provided for the counting teams. Instead they relied on their own resources including using their mobile phones as calculators.

It then started raining heavily again and at one point it looked like the seams in the tent roof might break. All over the counting area we could see water pouring in. One person was going around the tent with a large pole, pushing at the accumulating reservoirs of water to release them and prevent the roof from bursting. By 1.00am the judge was looking absolutely exhausted. He had been supervising the polling station for two days, with little sleep the previous two nights. He asked one of his assistants to take over counting the individual list papers.

By 2.00am the team had opened the third box (party lists, day 2) unfolding the papers and counting the votes cast. At the same time two people were completing the count for the day 1 party list box, transferring the results from the informal tally on to the official forms, the total having been checked against the number of votes cast. At each stage of counting – calling out the votes cast, writing them down on the rough paper, transferring them to the official form – there is scope for dishonest individuals to alter the results, provided the total figure matches the total number of votes cast. But we saw no evidence of wrongdoing in the count.

By 2:30am the team had opened the fourth box (individual candidates, day 2). At the same time one pair of workers were completing the second batch of party list candidates and another group working on the first batch of individual candidates. At 3.45am the judge started checking results of the first batch of votes for individual candidates against the total cast and subsequently entering them on to the official reporting forms. There are 48 candidates. Each name has to be handwritten on to the form as they have not been pre-printed with candidate names. Each vote cast has to be recorded as a mark on the form. It takes over an hour to transfer the data.

At 5.00pm the team started counting the individual candidate votes in the fourth and final box. By this time everyone was exhausted. The ballot papers were split between two pairs of officials, one calling the results, the other writing down. The spoiled ballots (again 3 – 5 per cent) were set aside, packaged up and signed off with the reasons for exclusion. At the same the election materials for the first three boxes were being packaged up, wrapped in brown paper and tied or taped up. The ballot papers were taped up and details of the content was written across the tape and the brown paper to provide protection against tampering. A neighbouring table, who had finished already, offered to provide support to complete the count, and it was accepted.

By 6.00pm the team had completed counting the votes in the fourth box. The judge from the neighbouring table assisted to verify the total votes cast before they were transferred to the official reporting form. Ten hours after our arrival at the Court House the count from our polling station was complete. The combined results for Damietta were not announced at the count but were forwarded to the Higher Election Commission. We were in no doubt that it was going to be a big win for the Islamist groups who have dominated the local campaigning.