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Why I Boycotted the Egyptian Presidential Elections

May 24, 2012 | Tarek Nasr
Personal | , , , , , , | 27 comments

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A lot of people have been surprised with my decision to boycott the current historic presidential elections that we are currently undertaking in Egypt, Some of the arguments I have heard have included:

  • “Don’t be passive go vote and at least block your least favorite candidate”
  • “Your Boytcott is pointless if 10 Million people aren’t boycotting with you”
  • “People died for us to have these elections”
  • “You want SCAF to leave, they will NEVER just leave we need to take tiny crumb by tiny crumb”

Those are just some of the counter arguments I remember hearing.

Unlike the majority of my posts that take me a bit of time to write and are well thought out I will speak randomly and from the heart on why I boycotted:

  • Why do we have to take crumb by crumb from SCAF?
  • Why are we suddenly realists? Toppling Hosni Mubarak and sending him and his cronies to jail was so far fetched pre #Jan25 I would suggest we could have never even dreamed of accomplishing it!
  • Why do we have to accept everything SCAF gives us as fact? Why?
  • When they present us with elections that are 100% flawed why do we have to agree to them and file it under “Democracy”?
  • When I have no clue what the powers of the president will be what am I voting for?
  • When a former Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Mubarak’s are running how can I be asked to vote and “accept the outcome”?
  • When SCAF is running the elections why should I trust them now? What have they EVER done to earn my trust?
  • When there are “small irregularities” in almost every single “lagna” how can the elections be free and fair?
  • When the person counting the votes is the same person that killed my brothers and sisters how can i vote in elections run by them?
  • When the only thing that stopped Omar Sulaiman from being in the elections is a stupid technicality as appose to the fact that he was Mubarak’s frickin RIGHT HAND MAN!
  • When the mechanism to be eligible to run for president is such a farce that a singer with no education whatsoever technically qualified to be in the race while someone like Bothaina Kamel couldn’t qualify!
  • When SCAF has purposefully sandwiched the Mubarak verdict in between elections to lessen the protest to what will surely be ridiculous ruling why should i vote?
  • No one died for Shafik and Amr Moussa to run for president!!! This is NOT democracy

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion but I feel all we are doing is bailing out SCAF and emboldening them and giving them more power and I will not be part of this mockery

I don’t have all the answers as to what we should do and I don’t need to.

All i know is that this is unacceptable and I will not comply.

I will argue that writing this post and having hundreds or thousands of people reading it and opening up this discussion is far more powerful than baking my ass off in SCAF’s line while hearing people argue over which is the better candidate Shafiq or Amr Moussa!

27 Responses to Why I Boycotted the Egyptian Presidential Elections

  1. Omar Kamel

    May 24, 2012

    Thanks for writing this up, the more of us there are speaking against these pretend elections the better :) My own piece is called Who Are We Kidding With These Elections? – and you can find it at http://www.karmamole.com/septic/who-are-we-kidding/

    We’ll just have to wait for people to snap out of yet another performance by SCAF, but at least we don’t have to be props!

  2. Nancy

    May 24, 2012

    I can see from your post you took time and thought about the issue at hand. I agree with you that the elections are for president are not so important. Egypt remains a military dictatorship. The people of Egypt are trying to move from this political model to a democracy. Democracy does not come over night. it takes time to set into place. Democracy is not pretty there is going to have to be a continued fight of the Egyptian people to keep pushing in this direction. It is not going to be easy to get the people in power to let go of their finacially and political powers that they have enjoyed for many many years. This is the real obstacle to democracy in Egypt getting rid of the military in power.

    I am also confused why the people of Egypt did not form a constitution first. without the framework or laws and rights laid out it is imposible for a president to govern. No one knows his limits of power and when a new president will be elected. The people have no freedom of speech. The press has no laws to protect them.

    Even with all the issues and obstacles you and I mentioned. I would still have voted. The Egyptian society is forming a new government. Protestors died to get Mobarak out of office. Democracy will never be perfect. No election will ever be perfect. I would choose to engage in elections of president for the mere fact that I want my opinion to count in each and every free election. Egypt influences all of the middle east. Look to Egypt music, movies, language all significant culture comes from Egypt. Democracy in Egypt would be an earthquake in the Arab world — if it succeeds.

  3. Tarek Nasr

    May 24, 2012

    Thanks for taking the time to write up this comprehensive comment

    I agree that while democracy is never perfect this is far from it and by using a platform such as the internet to voice my opinion I have made more of an impact than simply standing in line and voting

  4. Michael Neumann

    May 24, 2012

    I don’t think you can get around the following: boycotting the elections makes sense only if you’re certain they will do no good. In these unique circumstances, you can’t be certain. Things are so dicey, you can’t even be certain your vote, or your vote plus those you might have encouraged, won’t make a difference. On the other hand, it *does* seem virtually certain that your *abstention* can’t have a discernible positive effect.

    On the other hand, though you have no right to be certain, my guess is that your assumptions are correct! :)

  5. samar

    May 24, 2012

    Samar Abdelaal Ibrahim لكى تكتمل العملية الديموقراطية يجب ان تتاح جميع جوانبها و عناصرها! يجب ان تكون متحررة من كل ما يعرقلها وكل من يتلاعب بيها خلف الستار او أمام الستار! اعتقد انه واضح جدا ان هناك الكثير بيحركوا الدفة و التيار! و المرشحين ما هم الا ادوات منهم ادوات منصاعة و منهم ادوات بتحاول تواجه على اد قدراتها! لكن فى الأخر هى مش ديمقراطيه بالمعنى الحقيقى هى مجرد مسرحية! او نظام العصا و الجزرة!
    Boycotting!

  6. Karim

    May 24, 2012

    What are u trying to accomplish ?

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    May 25, 2012

    [...] blogger and activist Tarek Nasr has written a widely circulated blog post explaining that he is boycotting the election because none of the candidates is a true [...]

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  13. Ahmad Ragab

    June 4, 2012

    “When the person counting the votes is the same person that killed my brothers and sisters how can i vote in elections run by them?”

    For that, and only that reason; I believe one has to be insane to vote.

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    [...] and the female Presidential Candidate Bothaina Kamel, that women as well as men http://blog.enterplanet360.com/2012/05/why-i-boycotted-the-egyptian-presidential-elections/ worked for, as well as other essential demands. Therefore, the current Egyptian pseudogovernment is [...]

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    September 14, 2012

    [...] to run but received no major party support, as a choice for President, in his reason for boycotting http://blog.enterplanet360.com/2012/05/why-i-boycotted-the-egyptian-presidential-elections/ We must learn from those who boycotted in Egypt, and in the US, and this time, make it a far fuller [...]

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    [...] to run but received no major party support, as a choice for President, in his reason for boycotting http://blog.enterplanet360.com/2012/05/why-i-boycotted-the-egyptian-presidential-elections/ We must learn from those who boycotted in Egypt, and in the US, and this time, make it a far fuller [...]

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  22. OPEN LETTER TO CHRIS HAYES MSNBC « boycotttvopenletterstomedia

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    [...] to run but received no major party support, as a choice for President, in his reason for boycotting http://blog.enterplanet360.com/2012/05/why-i-boycotted-the-egyptian-presidential-elections/ We must learn from those who boycotted in Egypt, and in the US, and this time, make it a far fuller [...]

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