By Yasmine El-Demerdash
CAIRO, Jan 13 (Aswat Masriya) – The Carter Center reiterated on Monday its decision not to monitor Egypt’s upcoming parliamentary elections, scheduled for March and April, the center’s Democracy Program director said.
“The Carter Center has no current plans to be involved in observing the upcoming elections in Egypt,” Director David Carroll told Aswat Masriya via email, adding that “there has been no change in [their] decision.”
The democracy watchdog had announced it will not observe the upcoming parliamentary elections in a statement released in October 2014.
“In the current context, it is unclear whether the Center … would now be required to register as [an] NGO in order to conduct operations. Likewise, it is not clear whether electoral authorities would accredit the Center and ensure meaningful access to observe the upcoming elections,” the statement by the centre read.
“While The Carter Center will not be present for the coming elections, it hopes that conditions for nonpartisan election observation will improve in the future,” the statemet added.
The decision came in light of announcing the closure of the centre’s office in Egyptin October 2014, after assessing that the political environment in Egypt was “deeply polarised and that political space has narrowed for Egyptian political parties, civil society, and the media.”
The Carter Center began operating in Egypt in May 2011, and has been observing electoral polls since then, with the 2014 presidential elections being the last.