Protect the Voting Rights of Egyptians Abroad!

Protect the Voting Rights of Egyptians Abroad!
We are expressing our strong opposition to the disenfranchisement of Egyptian voters abroad in the lead-up to the parliamentary vote on Monday, November 28.
In response to a lawsuit filed by Egyptians abroad, the Egyptian Administrative Court ruled on October 25, 2011 that Egyptian citizens living overseas have the right to vote in parliamentary elections. The court’s decision affirmed the basic civil right of Egyptians abroad to participate in Egyptian electoral politics as full and equal members of Egyptian society. It was a first for Egypt’s 7 to 10 million Egyptian citizens living abroad, and winning this right was a key demand of protesters in Tahrir.
Rather than work dutifully to enforce this right, however, the Egyptian government conducted the registration and election process in a way that effectively excluded millions of Egyptians abroad eligible to vote.
We call upon you to correct this disenfranchisement by
1) reopening the registration process for Egyptians abroad to give more time for them to register their place of residency,
2) extending the time allowed for voters to send their ballots to their embassies to accommodate weekends and holidays in their respective country of residence, and
3) ensuring that the website is robust, updated and capable of handling large volume of users.
Whether government officials incompetently carried out their responsibilities to protect the right of Egyptians overseas to vote or deliberately erected barriers to their participation, we cannot say at this point. We do know that the chairman of the High Commission of Elections, the military council (SCAF), the Prime Minister and the Minister of Interior all had opposed granting Egyptians abroad the right to vote in this fall’s parliamentary elections.
We must ensure that the most fundamental civil right of Egyptians abroad is protected and that every vote counts equally. We urge you to do all that you can to uphold the right of Egyptians abroad to vote in parliamentary elections so that the new, democratic election system that all patriotic Egyptians seek becomes a reality.