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Your Excellencies Mr. Minister of Reform & Mr. Minister of Agriculture, Edko fishermen demand to reopen the elections in their association
In a sudden development, some of the fishery wealth corporation employees in El Behira province have announced the closure (the end) of the elections for the membership of Edko fishermen association on the 1st of April 2005, without any of the fishermen knowing about the date of the beginning or the end of the elections, that was confirmed to the Center by more than 20 fishermen who were intending to nominate them selves for the board membership of the association during the 2005 - 2010 session.
The fishermen stated “we were surprised with the elections starting and ending with us knowing, after that, we knew that the nominations were scheduled to start in 27/3/2004 and end in 31/3/2005, the unfortunate thing is that we knew these information in 1/4/2005, we used to go to the association during this period, meet some of the board members and ask them about the date of elections, but they didn’t say anything about it, and the dates weren’t announced an written papers or any other means of announcements”.
The fishermen also mention that they have prepared the election papers for the board membership and they were ready to be presented, as they confirm that the old board members are more than 85 years of age, who don’t leave their homes or do any activities for the association due to their bad health conditions, and the elections have ended without anyone entering for nomination except them and one fisherman for the next 5 years, as they won uncontested in this round too, just like all the previous ones.
The fishermen justify that by saying that the old board members think that this association is their own private property, as one of the old board members said to the fishermen when protested at the association’s headquarters “we are in no need for the bother of elections, expenses for no reason and fights, what will you or any other people do? This is our association, not the fishermen’s”.
The LCHR is presenting a challenge to the state council in Alexandria court today, demanding the fishery wealth corporation –as the administrational body- to supervise and monitor the fishermen election process by reopening the elections once again to guarantee fishermen rights in participation, gathering and organizing.
One of the fishermen wonders “why does the government do that? What does it gain from the existence of 85 years old board members in Edko fishermen association, who are in their homes all year? Is that the reform and change that the government calls for everyday in the newspapers? Till we thought that there is a Minister for reform whom we should go to, to present our complaints, who can protect our rights to participating in the association that supervise and organize the fishing profession, they must help us in improving the conditions of this profession and protect fishermen rights in health and social care … etc”.
It is worth mentioning that the LCHR has challenged the board elections of Edko association, as a lot of violations have happened in the elections of the year 2000, and the challenge is still under deliberation in Alexandria administrational judicial court session 4/4/2005 no. 3298/53 judicial.
The fishermen wonder, does reform mean to go to court and beg their rights from the government and it’s officials in the districts? And will the slowness of the judicial procedure guarantee our rights in organizing ourselves, participate in developing the fishery wealth and improve the conditions of our families and the fishing profession? The fishermen also wonder, what did the board members do to improve the conditions of fishermen or to stop wasting the water of the lake and privatizing it’s water to the owners of the big fishing farms? What did they do to protect the lake from pollution? As some companies throw their wastes in it till now. What did they do to protect farmers from dangers and injuries or to improve their conditions and support their development?
Another fisherman said “the problem of the board of Edko association that it has contributed in all of these violations during the last 20 years, isn’t that enough for the officials of reform in the government to change this board by making democratic elections that the fishermen could participate in”.
It is worth mentioning that from the fact of the LCHR’s interest in the fishermen sector since 1996 and the aspect of their economic and social problems, either by field monitoring, the cases that it files for them to demand their rights or through the many complaints that it receives from the fishermen of several lakes in Egypt, it has been revealed that the strong bond between the absence of the social and cooperative corporations that express the fishermen benefits and the deterioration of their livelihood conditions under the pressure the social and economic transformations, especially the privatization policies that reached the lake waters and effected negatively on their only source of income in fishing. The spread of the fishery farms and their tenants who don’t apply or respect the law to threaten the fishing profession especially the small fishermen (the net and boat fishermen) and the waste of the fishery wealth, and the bad management in several lakes has also led to the deterioration of the environmental conditions of the lakes.
The LCHR is presenting the complaints of the fishermen to the Minister of Agriculture to demand solving the problem of Edko fishermen, reopen the elections for the membership of the board of this association in the new round 2005 – 2010 and the LCHR demand both members of the People’s and the Consultative Councils to modify the texts of the law no. 123 for the year 1983, especially clauses nos. 2 – 3 –5 – 7 – 15 – 29 – 49 – 80 and other texts that lead to violating the fishermen rights in establishing independent associations and unities that lead to the domination of the state bodies over these associations and the administrational interference in their activities, and lead to the imprisonment of fishermen and the confiscation of their nets and boats for simple violations like: forgetting the license during the fishing process.
The LCHR demands the civil society foundations, all of the national forces and the political parties in El Behira province to unite in solidarity with Edko fishermen and enable them to practice their rights in election for the membership of their association, guarantee their rights in gathering and organizing, develop their participation and support their economic and social rights.