Social media caught on with derision after the National Elections Authority decided to refer all voters who had failed to vote in the first round of the Senate elections to the Public Prosecution Office.

The irony is mainly due to the fact that the number of those who boycotted the elections amounted to about 54 million Egyptians, according to the results announced by Lashin himself last Wednesday, in which he stated that the total number of those registered in the election tables is close to 63 million Egyptians, and that those who participated in the elections are less than nine million among them. Approximately 7.6 million valid votes and 1.4 void votes.

According to the law that has not been applied in any previous elections, the prosecution has the right to fine the defaulter of voting up to five hundred Egyptian pounds (the dollar equals about 16 pounds), and that is unless proof is presented that there is a compelling excuse preventing him from voting, such as illness or the like.

This penalty was stipulated in Article 57 of the Law on the Exercise of Political Rights issued under No. 45 of 2014.

The people are in the dock ...
the election commission decides to refer about 54 million citizens to the Public Prosecution, due to the failure to vote in the Senate elections, to fine them about 27 billion pounds pic.twitter.com/9C4ao3xBqA

- Monitoring Network (@RassdNewsN) August 26, 2020

National Elections in Egypt refers to the prosecution those who did not participate in voting in the (Senate) elections, the non-participation rate is 86%, the number of boycotters is 54 million citizens. The investigation takes 12 years and 4 months. If the investigation is undertaken by 1000 investigators, they work 12 hours a day without Vacations, one inquiry only takes an hour!

- Jamal Sultan (@ GamalSultan1) August 26, 2020

Oh, Lashin. I am elected and he has to divorce. What are the MPs? What are the sheikhs? What are you doing?

- Ali (@ Ali64422723) August 26, 2020

# Cil_alchiokh to
refer people to the public prosecution on charges of not voting in the elections , the
elections mean democracy
and democratic citizen has the right to vote or not to vote or not to go to the election commissions
are de democracy
Aaabdh democracy

- Essam Atet (@dressamatef) August 26, 2020

This news alone is the disaster of the
deputy, whom you want to fine me because I have not chosen you from his right in the Council, that he refrains from voting on a decision or law that regulates life in Egypt and you will not punish him
from my right, they would like that if I don’t like the offered, I’m not going to buy. # Senate Council pic.twitter.com/aD0Dswudx5

- Osama Osman (@uselnoby) August 26, 2020

Despite the election commission threatening the voters with a fine for the defaulters, the Egyptians did not take the threat seriously, as it was repeated repeatedly before without the law being implemented.

Observers believe that the authority is reluctant to take such a step because it highlights the real small number of voters, which represents a great embarrassment to the regime, and challenges the legitimacy of the election results as it expressed a small minority.

Shaaban, a teacher who preferred not to give his full name, said that he expected such a decision, and despite his rejection of the existence of such a council that "is useless but courtesy of those close to the regime by appointing them to it," he hastened the election committee and nullified his vote, in an almost complete vacuum A committee of voters.

"Al-Sisi is searching his old notebooks and looking for any source to collect money from the Egyptians," he told Al-Jazeera Net.

The recent elections witnessed a weak turnout amid an intense campaign by parties close to the regime to urge voters to go by providing buses to take them to polling stations, and providing meals and money for the voters.

Today, Wednesday, the Board of Directors of the National Elections Authority, headed by Counselor Lashin, held a meeting to discuss mechanisms for applying the provisions of the Law on the Exercise of Political Rights on every voter who failed to perform the national duty and cast his vote in the 2020 Senate elections.

The council ended up preparing lists of the names of every voter entitled to vote and failed to do so.

This decision, if implemented, means the collection of about 25 billion pounds, "about one billion and six hundred million dollars," which could pump some blood into the country's exhausted budget in light of the continued policy of borrowing from abroad and the failure to establish serious productive projects that would help increase the national income of Egypt.

The Board of Directors of the National Authority affirmed that "the Egyptian state has provided all the necessary facilities and equipment for the voters to descend in order to exercise their political right to vote" in the first round of the Senate elections.

The National Elections Authority has taken all "precautionary measures to protect the parties to the electoral process and voters from the Corona pandemic."

According to the election commission’s statement, the polling stations “prepared” to receive the voters, and the election commission had repeatedly warned of the necessity of disembarking, but some failed to fulfill their national role and duty to participate, which is what the Commission’s Board of Directors concluded by referring all those who failed to vote by transferring it to the Public Prosecution Office. What is needed in this regard.