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politics
Day in the life of a Matrouh candidate
By Ahmad Nafadi from Matrouh - - 03 January 2012

 

Nearly 67 candidates are running for individual seats in the first post-revolution parliamentary elections in Matrouh. EgyptVotes took the camera out for a day with one of the candidates.

 

Photography by Mohamed Maymouny - MICT

 
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We met with Ayman Ibrahim Saleh Muhammad aka Ayman Shuwaiqy Al-Sarhany. Saleh is an accountant and a rights activist. He also holds the position of secretary of the Justice Party in Matrouh. At 43 years of age, Saleh appears to be somewhat tired. Not a minute seem to go by without him glancing at either his phone or his schedule. Saleh's day as an election candidate is drastically different from his regular days. He says that every evening he has to put together the next day's schedule, hour by hour, to prepare for the visits, tasks, communications, and conferences that need to be carried out.
Saleh's day begins with morning rounds where he visits government offices which employ large numbers of employees to conduct the necessary publicity. Up till now, he has visited close to 20 government offices and entities. "After the morning shift is over I delve right into the afternoon shift without taking a break or going home. I bring everything I need with me, from my laptop to my cell phone charger and cell phones. The governorate is huge. I travel so much that I sometimes forget to grab myself a lunch or dinner."
Despite his many duties, Saleh is still keen on keeping in touch with his friends on Facebook. In the evening, he conducts field visits in downtown Marsa Matrouh, the capital of the governorate, and visits coffee shops and markets. Immediately after that he heads to the party office to receive visitors according to pre-planned appointments which are usually after the Isha prayers. Saleh laughs as he says that he can't leave the office until late at night. Sometimes he is there until 2 a.m.
Saleh personally regularly supervises and monitors the locations of their campaign banners fearing that they might be torn down or destroyed by rough weather conditions which are giving the post-revolution parliamentary candidates a hard time.
Saleh describes his party list as one that has achieved optimal balance, based on tribal forces, for its party list and individual seat candidates, whether for the parliamentary or the Shura Council. He says that his party made sure to keep the average candidate age at or under 35 years old thereby focusing on younger faces.
According to Saleh, the tribally acceptable recipe for a party, be it for the party list or the individual seat system, must include candidates from the tribes of Ali Abyad, from both of its branches Sanqar and Awlad Kharouf, and tribes of Awlad Ali Ahmar, Al-Jumaiat, Al-Qataan, and Al-Sunanah, which according to Saleh was achieved by the Justice Party.
However, Saleh complains of the lack of resources and feels that the absence of serious financial support has led to a state of paralysis especially with respect to publicity, communication, and transportation. This has weakened their candidates' morale, forcing him to personally distribute their media materials to the voters and to convince them of the party's programme through either street corner discussions or at the party's office, which he operates in the evenings through the early morning hours, where he receives visitors. Saleh laughs, "but I can't reach 198,000 voters, which is the total number of voters in the Matrouh governorate, all of whose centers were combined into one electoral district."