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Egypt lets rights groups monitor vote
 Egyptian rights groups will be allowed to monitor the parliamentary elections that begin in November, including watching vote counting, the committee overseeing the polls has said. Egyptian groups also monitored the September presidential polls and catalogued a list of irregularities and abuses, such as voter intimidation and ballot stuffing. But rights groups said the abuses were not enough to alter the result. President Hosni Mubarak won a fifth six-year term with 89% of the vote in September.Analysts say Mubarak's ruling party will face tougher competition in the parliamentary polls and rights groups say this could encourage more abuses such as vote buying. An alliance of opposition groups has called for foreign monitoring. When the United States made a similar call for the presidential election, the government said it saw no need for outside monitoring. The election committee, headed by Justice Minister Mahmoud Aboul Leil, said it would allow "Egyptian national societies and institutions" to apply to monitor the polls, Egypt's official MENA news agency reported on Monday. Posted by: Fred 2005-10-25 |
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