Suez voters remember fallen heroes of Egypt revolution

Suez: Braving the scorching heat as he holds on to portraits of his friends who were killed in the revolt against former president Hosni Mubarak more than a year ago, Saad Kamal, was on Thursday waiting in queue to cast his ballot in the city of Suez, some 120km northeast of Cairo.

“Had it not been for the blood of them, we would not have got this unique chance to elect our president freely,” Kamal, a 32-year-old oil engineer, said as he pointed to the pictures of the dead protesters.

“Some of my dearest friends were killed during the revolution against Mubarak. Significantly, the first martyr in this revolution fell in Suez,” he told Gulf News.

“Long known as the factory of heroes, Suez is leading change in Egypt,” he said as he glances at the long line of voters behind him.

Not far away from the school where Kamal and other voters were queuing stood a burnt building, which was at the centre of the early days of the anti-Mubarak revolt. The building used to be the police station in Al Arbaen, one of the popular districts in Suez where the majority of this restive city’s 34 deaths in last year’s protests happened.

Survivors recall that in the evening of January 25, 2011, the first day of the anti-Mubarak uprising, policemen were positioned on the roof of the police station and fired on the angry protesters. Mubarak’s loyalists also joined forces with the authorities who tried unsuccessfully to quell the protests, according to residents.

Months of trial for the suspected killers of the protesters have yet to conclude, adding to the grief of their families.

“The next president should pay special attention to the rights of the revolution’s martyrs,” said Kawathar Zaki, mother of Mustafa Ragab, the first protester to be killed in the anti-Mubarak uprising.

“This president should be firm on exacting retribution from the killers,” she said as she emerged from a polling station.

Kawathar, 54, disclosed that she voted for the moderate Islamist contender Abdul Moneim Abu Al Fotouh.

“He is the most qualified presidential candidate for this stage, which requires a president with a realistic programme [who] can meet the people’s needs, especially the poor,” she said.

An estimated 5,000 army soldiers were deployed to secure polling stations in Suez where around 381,000 out of a population of 512,000 are eligible voters.

Thirteen contenders are competing for Egypt’s top job. But in Suez, a major industrial city, the race was apparently limited to three hopefuls — Abu Al Fotouh, the head of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party; Mohammad Mursi; and Hamdeen Sabahi, an opposition leader inspired by the late populist president Jamal Abdul Nasser.

Ali Al Jeneidi, a spokesman of the slain protesters, is a staunch supporter of Abu Al Fotouh. “

This man has a good electoral platform. At the same time, he is aware of the injustices done to Egypt, mainly to families of the martyrs,” said AlJundi, whose son had been killed in the anti-Mubarak revolt.

“Trials are going at a snail’s pace without serious rulings,” he told this newspaper.

“Ironically, the majority of the resolved cases have ended in acquittal rulings for the involved policemen. This is a big farce and insult. Who killed our children then?” he added.