Elect a pyramid: Egyptians vote by symbols
By Nehal El-Sherif, dpa
Cairo (dpa) – When asked who he voted for, Egyptian student Ahmed Mohamed said he chose a pyramid, a tennis racket and an eye drop bottle. His friends had to decide between a tank, a gun, a lotus flower, a toothbrush and an eye.
Like many voters in Egypt's first parliamentary elections since the ouster of former president Hosny Mubarak in February, Mohamed memorized the symbols of the candidates he wanted to elect.
It is estimated that up to 30 per cent of Egypt's 80 million people cannot read and write. The use of symbols alongside text was first introduced in the 1950s.
As the number of candidates have increased over the years, so too have the number of symbols.
Before campaigning began, each of the 11,000 candidates from an array of parties vying for the 498 seats in the lower house of parliament was given one of some 150 symbols used to make voting easier for the illiterate.
In one province, two parties were vying by the Nefertiti and the Sphinx symbols.
When voting began on Monday, ballot sheets showed pictures including a tap, a calculator, an ambulance, fruits and animals, a chandelier, scales and a rocket. The same images had been used on campaign posters.
The High Elections Commission said it had assigned the symbols randomly.
With some constituencies giving voters a choice of 130 candidates, remembering names has not been easy, even for the literate.
"The list is long and the candidates have their full name printed on that ballot. I needed to make sure I am marking next to the one I want, so I double check the symbol with the name," said Mohamed, a 20-year-old engineering student.
Each voter is supposed to choose two individual candidates and one party list. Two third of the seats will go for party lists, while the remaining third will be for individuals.
“The symbols have made it much easier for me,” said first time voter, Marian Mikhael.
“Without them, I would have spent half an hour trying to find the names of the candidates I chose in the sheet,” she said, while leaving her polling station in central Cairo.
Candidates had built their campaigns around the symbols.
"Jump into the ship, it will carry you to safety," a voice over a loudspeaker called from a car emblazoned with posters of a candidate who was assigned the ship symbol, in Cairo's working-class district of Shubra.
Another candidate was given the teddy bear as a symbol and his slogan became: "If you do not like my style already, give me back my teddy."
While many candidates were able to use the images in a positive way, some parliamentary hopefuls were angered by the symbols assigned to them.
Sayed Sulaiman, an independent candidate in the northern Cairo neighbourhood of Imbaba, said he was humiliated when he was given a dress as a symbol. He filed a complaint with the electoral authorities and the dress was replaced with a baseball cap.
Visibly absent from the election were the crescent and camel symbols that Mubarak's ruling party had used for decades.
The symbols have been been the subject of jokes exchanged among voters, some of whom went as far as suggesting conspiracy theories behind their assignment. There were those who wondered if the party using the tank symbol is subtly promising to side with the ruling military.
The Islamist parties were accused by some of choosing their symbols to help them spread a positive image among voters.
The Salafist party Al-Nour, which means light, was given the lantern, while the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice party got the scale.
At one polling station there was laughter where posters showed one woman got the "rocket", which is used in Arabic slang to refer to an attractive young woman.
