The European Union mission in Egypt said false information caused the shocking dismissal of its presidential election observers from a seminar in Cairo on Saturday.
Mervat al-Tallawy, head of the National Council for Women, dismissed a delegation of European Union observers from a seminar for submitting a report that criticized the elections and mentioned cases of sexual harassment.
The symposium was held at the Opera House to discuss political participation of women in the elections.
“Your only role, in which you have failed, was to monitor the elections and evaluate whether they were fair or not,” Talawy told the delegation. “We are proud of our army, our people and our new president whether you like it or not.”
“We do not accept your report,” she told a member of the delegation. “Please get out, you are expelled from the Middle East.”
The delegation went out while the audience cheered and applauded.
A member of the delegation called what happened a dictatorship. “We have been monitoring elections in Cairo for a long time,” she said. “The member that was told to leave is the head of the delegation.”
For its part, The EU mission in Egypt said in a statement that it is a strong supporter of the National Council for Women and that it funds its valuable work.
The statement also said that it appears that the NCW Chairperson was somewhat misinformed about the preliminary report of the EU Electoral Observation Mission, which should be read in its entirety.
The statement added that the delegation had made a thoroughly professional assessment of the vote, as explained by the Chief Observer in his press conference last Thursday, which was reported widely in local and international media.
