In the Seyouf district of Alexandria, hundreds of microbuses ushered droves of civil servants to the ballot box.
Upon arrival, large crowds of men and women gathered under a tent in front of the polling station, brandishing their electoral cards with a highlighted mark on them.
"These are all civil servants. They are unfortunate people. They are selling their vote for LE20 to LE50," said a voter who requested anonymity. He explained that the mark means that "you accepted to sell your vote, consequently they let you easily inside the polling station whereas, if you don't have the mark, they make you dizzy at the door."
These civil servants allegedly receive either a future bonus or a flat bribe, disbursed in portions, before and after the ballot is cast.
"If you listen to the things the government is saying about transparency and free elections, it sounds very convincing until you see it in the street it sounds like they mean it," one civil servant said.
In Arish, Tagammu candidate Ibrahim al-Kachef declared "the NDP bribed all the area rural constituencies, making it extremely difficult for representatives of other parties to enter the electoral game."
