LCHR monitored the elections’ process in the Fishermen Cooperative Society in Edku. LCHR’s members met with the Lake’s most active fishermen. Their aims were to investigate the electoral process there on the one hand, and to attempt to alert both the voters and the candidates of their rights stated in the law 123 which deals with the elections of the Fishermen Cooperative Societies, on the other. These meetings were very well received on the side of the fishermen and their leaders in that region. Of the main issues that occupied a vast space of the conversations held with the fishermen were the ambitions they seek to achieve, and to what extent the law of elections accords with these ambitions.
These conversations exposed many deficiencies in the law, and expressed the fishermen’s desire to modify these deficiencies, so that the law accords with their actual needs. The elections showed how positive most of the fishermen are, and how much they really do want to change their actuality. This positive attitude showed in the hastening of many of them to set themselves as candidates, (which is a first hand experience in Edku’s society, as the board of directors used to be selected and employed by an unopposed recommendation).
LCHR’s interaction with the fishermen in general and with their candidates in particular had a great role in alerting them to their rights in the electoral process and in helping them to pass the legal procedures related to it successfully. Moreover, it enlightened them about the course of the electoral process itself from the first moment of opening the constituencies, and the role they should play. It discussed as well the long absent role of the society, as well as urging the candidates to present electoral programs that touch the actual needs of all categories of fishermen. LCHR’s active members were present during and after the electoral procedures, as they held conversations and sessions to enlighten the fishermen and their families about their rights on every scale.
Many fishermen appreciated the role of LCHR and expressed their desire for the continual existence of the center’s members among them to discuss more issues concerning the problems that they face in both their work and their lives. Also, to deepen their awareness of the rights the law, the constitution, the human rights and the international covenants grant them.