Cairo: Chief Election Commissioner S Y
Quraishi, is visiting Egypt to apprise the top officials in
the country about the electoral system in India and the usage
of EVMs, as the country prepares itself for democratic process
after the ouster of Hosni Mubarak regime.
Quraishi is accompanied by a 5-member team from the
Election Commission of India which is on a five day visit to
Egypt from Tuesday. The visit ends on April 23.
Egypt`s military rulers had last month announced an
interim constitution and said presidential elections would be
held by November after Mubarak was ousted in a popular
revolution.
During the visit, the Chief Election Commissioner of
India is scheduled to have meetings with Yehiah Al Aziz El
Gamal, Deputy Prime Minister, Mohamed Abdelaziz El Gendy,
Minister of Justice, Nabil El Araby, Foreign Minister, Magued
Osman, Minister of Communications and Information Technology.
He will also interact with the Egyptian Supreme
Committee for Presidential Elections and Egyptian High
Election Committee for Parliamentary Elections.
During his stay in Egypt, Quraishi is also scheduled
to have a meeting with the members of the Egyptian Council for
Foreign Affairs.
The Indian delegation will brief the Egyptian
dignitaries about the system followed in India for conducting
different elections and also make a presentation on the use of
Electronic Voting Machines that have been in use in India for
some years.
The polls may be held in November. It will be the
second presidential election in Egypt`s history, following the
2005 election and presidential confirmation referendum in
1999, 1993, and earlier.
Mubarak had been President from 1981, following the
assassination of Anwar Sadat, until his resignation in
February 2011.
Potential candidates include Mohamed ElBaradei (the
ex-Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA), and joint recipient, with the Agency, of the 2005
Nobel Peace Prize), Amr Moussa (the current Secretary-General
of the Arab League, and former Egyptian Foreign Minister) and
Ahmed Zewail (Egyptian-American scientist, and the winner of
the 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry), among others.
PTI
