Qena–"It was an unprecedented fuss," said an official at the Security Directorate in the Upper Egyptian city of Qena, describing the battle between parliamentary candidates over the symbols that would accompany their names on the voting ballots in Sunday’s elections.
Symbols are meant primarily to enable voters in rural areas of Egypt–where large segments of the population are illiterate–to identify candidates listed on the ballots.
According to a 1956 law, electoral candidates must choose from 31 available symbols to represent them on the ballots. In 1984, the list was expanded to include 100 symbols.
With increasing numbers of candidates fighting over single seats, the government-run High Elections Commission (HEC) issued two resolutions–in 2007 and 2010–on the distribution of electoral icons.
Symbols are now assigned on a first-come-first-served basis. Those first to register their candidacies are given first choice as to what symbol they want to represent them. Licensed political parties, for their part, have standard symbols reserved for them.
For example, the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) is always represented by the crescent or camel symbol. In Egypt’s first multi-candidate presidential elections in 2005, President Hosni Mubarak, the NDP candidate, was represented by the sign of the crescent. The liberal Wafd Party, meanwhile, was known by the sign of the palm or the scale.
In Qena last week, people gathered around the local Security Directorate chanting, "Al-Hagag, your crescent is high," in reference to the influential NDP candidate in Qena–Umbarak Abu al-Hagag–who was assigned the crescent symbol.
Other candidates, however, have expressed anger over what they see as relatively unappealing symbols.
"How can you succeed in an election with a lousy symbol?" said Moustafa Ali, a local campaigner for independent candidate Sayed Bagary, who was assigned the dice symbol. "Having dice as your symbol suggests you're a gambler; it implies that you spend your time in cafes playing backgammon," he added.
Around 40 independent candidates in Qena have refused the respective symbols assigned them by the HEC. Some of the more controversial electoral symbols include a refrigerator, a smoking pipe, a shower tap, a football, a comb and a water pump.
According to local television presenter Ashraf Gaber, many of these emblems bear a potentially negative connotation, while the symbols reserved for the ruling party have positive associations.
"The NDP has the upper hand when it comes to symbols,” he said. “Its candidates have the crescent, which in local culture indicates beauty, and the camel, which suggests the twin concepts of patience and strength."
The Security Directorate official said that a number of candidates had expressed dissatisfaction with their respective symbols.
"They tried to change them, but they were confused and hesitant about having new ones assigned since the order of candidates on the ballot depends on the symbols," he said, asking not to be identified since he was not authorized to speak publicly.
As it stands, the crescent stands at the top of ballots in Qena–most of which feature between 30 and 40 candidates–followed by pictograms representing chandeliers, grapes and a wall clock. The list ends with images of an axe, a bell and a pair of scissors.
In addition to two quota seats, Qena has 16 seats in parliament, 12 of which will be fought over by rival NDP candidates in Sunday’s polling.
The battle over symbols is not confined to Qena. Earlier this month, independent candidates protested against the Security Directorate in the Nile Delta governorate of Daqahleya when the latter issued a list containing only 59 symbols, which included neither the crescent nor the camel sign.
