TUWS: Trade unions’ elections fraud handled by Egypt’s National Security

31

The Center for Trade-Unions and Workers Services issued a statement saying that it was able to document dozens of cases of National Security police interference that prevented employees and workers from running in the first phase of the union elections that took place on Monday. CTUWS, which specialized in labour affairs, quoted a postal authority employee saying that a national security officer threateningly asked him not to run for office without giving reasons.

The employee explained that the authorities also prevented him from obtaining the necessary documents for candidacy. Furthermore, the police department refused to write a report proving that it prevented him from receiving these papers.

A current union committee member in a state oil company was also surprised that prevented him from running. He said that after the preliminary lists were announced, he discovered that his name had been crossed out from the list of candidates, likely due to interference from his company management and the union head. “All the excluded have certainly been distanced for illegal security reasons,” said Kamal Abbas, the general coordinator of the Union and Labor Services House.