All over Egypt a political storm has been raging over the new Egyptian Constitution, which was recently approved through a public referendum. However it seems that Egypt’s largest governorate, the New Valley governorate, has somehow kept its distance from the demonstrations and unrest that have swept the rest of the country.
All over Egypt a political storm has been raging over the new Egyptian Constitution, which was recently approved through a public referendum. However it seems that Egypt’s largest governorate, the New Valley governorate, has somehow kept its distance from the demonstrations and unrest that have swept the rest of the country.
This distance from political activity has happened for several reasons. Firstly geography – it’s a long way from Cairo. The provincial capital, Kharga, is 600 kilometres from the Egyptian one. Secondly, demography: although New Valley is Egypt’s largest governorate it also has a very low population density, due to the fact that it contains a lot of desert.
Thirdly, political activism has not been a popular pastime here until recently. Under the former regime of ousted Egyptian leader, Hosni Mubarak, state security had a strong hold on local universities, arresting hundreds of Islamic students in the 1990s.
The governorate was also well known for its prison, a local human rights activist, Ahmad Sa’d Thabet, explained. Local people were too scared to join any opposition groups because they had heard stories of torture from inside the prison.
This meant that the formerly-heavily-repressed Muslim Brotherhood, whose political wing now runs the country, was unable to open an office here until after the Egyptian revolution in 2011, Ali Mahmoud, a local member of Brotherhood, said.
Another human rights activist, Mohammed Arafa, believed that the people of New Valley were either uninterested in politics or else they were dominated by the Islamic parties. Other parties had not been able to muster much opposition, Arafa said, because of the distances that political campaigners had to travel between towns and villages in the governorate, or, if they were coming from out of the area, the long trip they had to make to get the governorate at all.
Hardly surprising then that the position championed by the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamic parties – to vote “yes” for the Brotherhood-backed Constitution – was the most popular, come referendum day in New Valley. Around 87 percent voted for the Constitution on December 22.
News sources reported a limited turnout of voters. Buses organised by the Muslim Brotherhood’s political wing, the Freedom and Justice Party, to transport voters to polling stations ended up having to wait for some time before the buses filled up.
Some of those who made up the 87 percent of New Valley residents gave their reasons for voting the way they did.
Bakir, 38, a sports teacher said, “I voted yes because generally, I find the Constitution OK and I accept most of the articles – although I do have problems with some of them”.
Hassan, 36, a craftsman who is also a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, was happy to vote for the Constitution because, “it directs the state towards implementing Sharia law. I don’t understand why people are so afraid of Sharia: as long as you do good, everything will be fine,” he reasoned.
Meanwhile Abulula, 56, a pensioner, was more concerned about Egypt’s stability. “I hope that the country stabilizes and that my pension increases, so I can pay my children’s expenses. They are all studying at university except the youngest. So I voted “yes” because I hope that Egypt will soon recover.”
Despite the fact that those for the new Constitution were in a clear majority, there was some political activity in New Valley. Several parties gave talks and handed out leaflets in an attempt to get their points of view across and to educate the people of New Valley about what the new Constitution would mean.
Iman Hussein, an engineer and spokesperson for the Masr al-Qaweya, said that his party, which was opposed to the new Constitution, would continue to organize their educational campaigns until the referendum was over. They were particularly opposed to Article 14 of the Constitution, he said, which says “wages shall be linked to production”. This put employees at the mercy of their employers, said Hussein, who planned to vote against the Constitution.
Meanwhile Leila Abdulel Majid, 40, a civil servant with the Ministry of Education said she voted against the Constitution, because of Article 202, which says: “the President of the Republic shall appoint the heads of independent bodies and regulatory agencies upon the approval of the Shura Council, for a period of four years, renewable once”. She felt this gave the President too much power.
On the other hand, Saleh Alawi, 28 and a member of the more hardline Islamic Salafists, said he voted against the Constitution because it didn’t go far enough when it came to Sharia law.
On the whole though, the day of the Constitutional referendum passed quietly in New Valley. There were only a handful of problems. These included observers noting that political activists were trying to influence voters from their own parties outside polling stations. And there was one incident where a voter tried to vote twice: a report was filed against that person with the Kharga police.
