Dove or tank? Tennis racket or mobile phone? In Egypt, where close to half of the population is believed to be illiterate, a good choice of campaign symbol can be decisive on polling day.
The ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) of President Hosni Mubarak makes no mistake and systematically reserves itself the Islamic crescent and the camel, which have proved their vote-grabbing potential over the years.
But the pecking order ends with the all-powerful NDP, leaving other candidates scrambling for the best remaining symbols.
PHOTO: EPA
In Cairo's impoverished Bulaq Dakrur constituency, the camel and the crescent will face a stiff challenge from the umbrella and the open book, logos for the Muslim Brothers and the hardline Gamaa Islamiya respectively.
"It's easier to remember the symbols than the names of the candidates," said Rasha Mohammed Ali.
No fewer than 529 candidates will battle it out today in the 25 constituencies of the Egyptian capital, one of eight governorates to be decided in the first wave of polling.
A total of 5,310 candidates nationwide are competing for parliament's 444 available seats during elections staggered over a whole month.
As he stares at the patchwork of posters plastered on the walls on Cairo's Dokki neighborhood, Mohammed Badri Abdallah offers his own explanation for the use of campaign symbols.
"These little logos were introduced for women, who often can't read," he said. According to most estimates, illiteracy rates hover above 40 percent for Egyptian men and reach the 50 percent mark for women.
The forest of campaign banners and posters mingling with decorations for the holy Muslim month of Ramadan and clusters of electricity cables and phone lines above Cairo's sandy alleyways can be overwhelming even to the literate.
Thus a distinctive symbol, whether representative or not of the party's platform or the candidate's profile, can be a serious asset.
On election day, some voters will tick off the symbol they can identify or simply their favorite logo rather than a name they can't read.
The determining factor in selecting a symbol often remains mysterious.
A female lawyer running in the central district of Dokki chose a cup, while others opted for the walking stick, the Ramadan lantern, the pencil or the rababa, a traditional Egyptian string instrument.
Nature-related symbols are considered safe choices, with doves, palm trees, grapes and suns among the most sought-after campaign logos.
Some would-be members of parliament wishing to convey a more modern image chose the light bulb, the aircraft and the mobile phone, while candidates in a more bellicose mood decided to run under the symbol of the tank, the sword or the handgun.
Independent candidate Adel Abdu is a contender for the prize of the healthiest symbol with a tennis racket, although courts are few and far between his destitute industrial neighborhood of Shubra al-Khima.
The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest opposition force which has promised to mount a tough challenge to the ruling party in the elections, has no symbol strategy and leaves each candidate to make his pick.
Thousands gathered across New Zealand yesterday to celebrate the signing of the country’s founding document and some called for an end to government policies that critics say erode the rights promised to the indigenous Maori population. As the sun rose on the dawn service at Waitangi where the Treaty of Waitangi was first signed between the British Crown and Maori chiefs in 1840, some community leaders called on the government to honor promises made 185 years ago. The call was repeated at peaceful rallies that drew several hundred people later in the day. “This government is attacking tangata whenua [indigenous people] on all
RIGHTS FEARS: A protester said Beijing would use the embassy to catch and send Hong Kongers to China, while a lawmaker said Chinese agents had threatened Britons Hundreds of demonstrators on Saturday protested at a site earmarked for Beijing’s controversial new embassy in London over human rights and security concerns. The new embassy — if approved by the British government — would be the “biggest Chinese embassy in Europe,” one lawmaker said earlier. Protester Iona Boswell, a 40-year-old social worker, said there was “no need for a mega embassy here” and that she believed it would be used to facilitate the “harassment of dissidents.” China has for several years been trying to relocate its embassy, currently in the British capital’s upmarket Marylebone district, to the sprawling historic site in the
The administration of US President Donald Trump has appointed to serve as the top public diplomacy official a former speech writer for Trump with a history of doubts over US foreign policy toward Taiwan and inflammatory comments on women and minorities, at one point saying that "competent white men must be in charge." Darren Beattie has been named the acting undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, a senior US Department of State official said, a role that determines the tone of the US' public messaging in the world. Beattie requires US Senate confirmation to serve on a permanent basis. "Thanks to
‘IMPOSSIBLE’: The authors of the study, which was published in an environment journal, said that the findings appeared grim, but that honesty is necessary for change Holding long-term global warming to 2°C — the fallback target of the Paris climate accord — is now “impossible,” according to a new analysis published by leading scientists. Led by renowned climatologist James Hansen, the paper appears in the journal Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development and concludes that Earth’s climate is more sensitive to rising greenhouse gas emissions than previously thought. Compounding the crisis, Hansen and colleagues argued, is a recent decline in sunlight-blocking aerosol pollution from the shipping industry, which had been mitigating some of the warming. An ambitious climate change scenario outlined by the UN’s climate
RSS