VZCZCXRO2154
RR RUEHROV
DE RUEHEG #1255 1701010
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 181010Z JUN 08
FM AMEMBASSY CAIRO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 9585
INFO RUEHXK/ARAB ISRAELI COLLECTIVE
RUEHWR/AMEMBASSY WARSAW 0057

UNCLAS CAIRO 001255 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
NSC FOR PASCUAL 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL KDEM PO EG
SUBJECT: IFES ENGAGEMENT WITH EGYPT'S SUPREME ELECTIONS 
COMMISSION 
 
REF: 2007 CAIRO 1408 
 
Sensitive but unclassified.  Not for Internet distribution. 
 
 
¶1. (SBU) On June 16, the Egypt country director for the 
International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) 
debriefed us on a June 2-7 trip to Poland that IFES, in 
coordination with the Al Ahram Center for Political and 
Strategic Studies, arranged for three senior members of 
Egypt's Supreme Elections Commission (SEC), together with the 
SEC's secretary-general.  The trip was funded through IFES' 
USD 1.3 million grant with USAID Egypt, and was the first 
direct contact IFES has yet had with the SEC (Carlson and his 
IFES colleagues met the SEC members for the first time while 
boarding the plane), due to sensitivities on the Egyptian 
side about the appearance of "foreign interference" in 
Egyptian elections. 
 
¶2. (SBU) The SEC participants were Adel Zaki Andrawes (SEC 
chairman), Hassan Ahmad Hassan Soliman (SEC deputy chairman), 
Mohamed Ahmed Abu Zeid (SEC member), and Entesar Nessim Hanna 
(SEC secretary-general). (Note: The SEC has 11 members total. 
End note). During the trip to Warsaw, SEC members met 
repeatedly with the Polish National Elections Commission 
(NEC), which had prepared a program that offered the SEC 
access to various actors at all levels of the Polish 
electoral process.  In addition to meetings with the Polish 
NEC, the SEC met with justices of the Polish Constitutional 
Court, Supreme Court, district level electoral commissions, 
and a mayor.  During their meetings, the SEC delegation 
expressed interest in such issues as the operations of 
elections commissions, out-of-country voting, voter 
registration, and voter participation.  According to IFES, 
while the SEC members were initially suspicious, by the end 
of the trip there was discussion of potential future 
cooperation between IFES and the SEC.  In terms of the next 
step, IFES is aiming for another international exchange trip 
in the late fall (post-Ramadan), to visit either the Indian 
or Indonesian election commissions.  IFES remains cautious 
and sanguine about the next steps, as the SEC is still 
sensitive about cooperation, and is "not yet fully on board, 
although they have come a long way." 
 
¶3. (SBU) The Egyptian ambassador to Poland sat in on all the 
meetings in Warsaw. He was supportive, but did make a point 
of noting that IFES is not legally registered as an NGO in 
Egypt, a detail which the SEC members seemed well aware of. 
The ambassador will undoubtedly send a report to the Egyptian 
MFA reporting on the SEC's experience in Warsaw, which he 
described to IFES as "very positive." 
 
¶4. (SBU) Comment: Since it was created in May 2007 (reftel), 
SEC members have repeatedly refused requests to meet with 
U.S. officials, including at the ambassadorial level.  They 
had also previously rejected meetings with IFES.  The recent 
break-through is in no small part the fruit of IFES' 
low-profile, go-slow, confidence building approach of working 
through Egyptian partner institutions to reach out to key 
Egyptian players such as the SEC. 
SCOBEY