Former US President Carter 'Concerned' Over Egypt
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter has warned Egypt that its transition
to democracy after years of political turmoil is faltering ahead of
presidential elections later this month.
His Carter Center won't be sending observers for Egypt's May 26-27
election, which many believe retired Field Marshal Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi
handily will win following the overthrow of Islamist President Mohammed
Morsi last year that he led. However, the center will be sending a
small team of experts.
In a statement Friday, the center warned that "Egypt's political
transition has stalled and stands on the precipice of total reversal."
The center said Morsi's overthrow deepened the political unrest in the
country. The military-backed interim government has declared Morsi's
Muslim Brotherhood group a terrorist organization, as hundreds of its
followers have been killed and thousands have been arrested.
"I am gravely concerned that Egypt's democratic transition has faltered," Carter said in the statement.
El-Sissi will face leftist Hamdeen Sabahi in the election, but his win
seems assured as the retired army leader is riding a wave of
nationalistic fervor following the July 3 overthrow. A Brotherhood-led
coalition says it will boycott the election.
Nearly 210,000 expatriates already have cast their ballots in Egyptian
embassies and consulates around the world and voting will be extended
for a fifth day, election commission head Abdel-Aziz Salman said
Saturday.
Carter called on Egypt's next president to take immediate steps to
foster dialogue and political accommodation "to ensure that the full
spectrum of Egyptian society can participate meaningfully in politics."
The Carter Center observed Egypt's parliamentary and presidential
elections in 2012, the polls that saw Morsi come to power as the
country's first freely elected president. However, the Atlanta-based
nonprofit organization did not send monitors for Egypt's last two
elections, both polls on the constitution. It cited the government's
late release of monitoring regulations as its reason for not monitoring
the constitutional vote under Morsi.
The European Union announced Saturday that its election observers only
will observe polling stations in Cairo after not being able to meet its
own requirements to observe elsewhere.
As president, Carter oversaw negotiations in the late 1970s that led to
Israel and Egypt signing their longstanding peace accords following wars
between the neighboring nations. The Carter Center, which he founded
with his wife, has been monitoring Egypt closely since the 2011 revolt
against autocrat Hosni Mubarak.
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