Egypt: Elections

Lord Chidgey Excerpts

Thursday 24th January 2013 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Warsi]

The noble Baroness makes an important point. Democracy is not just about going to the ballot box and putting a vote in it. It is about ensuring the whole process around that by making sure that people feel that they can have their say; that political parties can operate freely; that all in the country can feel that they have a right to vote; and that there is commentary about different political opinions. I agree with the noble Baroness.

[Lord Chidgey]

My noble friend will be aware that last week the Carter Center issued its recommendations for reforms, which are critical to Egypt’s electoral process. It is repeating calls for many of the reforms that it called for after the previous elections in 2011-12. Can my noble friend tell the House how confident or otherwise the Government are that the election observation mission that has now been sanctioned by the Egyptian Government will be any more effective in delivering a free, fair and transparent election process than previously, particularly in regard to the role of women and to voter education and information?

[Baroness Warsi]

My noble friend is right that concerns have been raised by the Carter institute. It is one of the reasons why our Arab Partnership has been funding that institute. One of the main themes of the Arab Partnership, which was set up by the Government two years ago, is to engage in the democratic process and strengthen civil society to be much more vocal about concerns over forthcoming elections. We continue to engage with all authorities in Egypt. The Foreign Secretary was there in September; the Minister responsible for asset recovery, Jeremy Browne, was in Egypt only last week to speak specifically on that, and I hope to be visiting in February.