US Government to Egypt: Can You PLEASE Have a Little Democracy?

On Saturday Michael Posner, the Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, wrote in The Washington Post, "Another Chance for Egypt to Commit to Transparency". Posner's intervention comes two weeks after the ruling National Democratic Party of President Hosni Mubarak took more than 90% of the seats in Parliamentary elections.

Whether the US Government will do more than some paragraphs in a newspaper is unclear. On Wednesday, we took a look at an April 2009 cable from the US Embassy in Cairo which tucked away its support for "democratic reform" and "expansion of human rights" in a description of the senior-level Strategic Dialogue between Egypt and the US. That formula is repeated in several other WikiLeaks documents from 2009.

Posner's article:

Most reports show voter turnout in the recent parliamentary elections was less than 25 percent - reflecting Egyptians' lack of faith in their electoral process. Ongoing public demonstrations reinforce this fact. Indeed, in both rounds of parliamentary elections there were credible reports of significant government interference directed against voters at the ballot box. Opposition party observers and candidate representatives were blocked from polling places, domestic monitors were denied full access to observe the process, and international monitors were not allowed into the country. The June elections for Egypt's upper house of parliament were similarly troubled.

Both Egyptian elections stand in contrast to a trend in the region of greater electoral transparency. Iraq and Jordan also held elections this year, and both allowed independent international and domestic monitors to observe the voting process. While irregularities and some violence were reported in each of those elections, the relative freedom and transparency of their processes underscore the extent to which some leaders in the region are embracing international norms for democratic elections as a way to increase public participation and confidence in their governments.

President Obama has made clear his support for the principle that all individuals should have the chance to shape the decisions that affect their lives. The United States, along with many other governments - including some in the Middle East, as evidenced by the Iraqi and Jordanian elections - embraces the globally accepted norm of international monitoring for democratic elections. These are universal principles, as valid for the Middle East as for Africa, Asia or North America.

and Egypt, one of our most important in the region, is rooted in common interests and shared aspirations. Both Americans and Egyptians want to achieve Arab-Israeli peace and hope to see a stable Iraq and an Iran that behaves responsibly within the international community. It is the administration's firm view that progress in political and economic reform in Egypt is essential to the country's long-term strength and success as a regional leader as well as to sustaining a strong foundation for our valued strategic partnership. The presidential elections scheduled for next fall present Egypt's leadership with an opportunity to set the stage for the future by making the reforms that will bolster citizens' confidence in their government and enhance the government's legitimacy in the eyes of the international community.

Egypt has publicly committed to steps that, if implemented, would be essential to a free, fair and transparent electoral process in 2011....

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