Description
“This is always my way of conducting elections: absolute freedom. I let people vote as they please until the election is over. Then I simply take the ballot box and throw it into the canal, and replace it with the one we’ve carefully prepared.”
Through his work as a deputy in an Egyptian village, Tawfiq al-Hakim gained firsthand experience of rural society in the first half of the 20th century, observing many of its customs and characteristics. He documented much of this in his diary, which recounts twelve days of events. He spoke honestly about this society, which he described as mired in squalor to the point of suffocation! He mentioned its flaws and joys, its conflicts and follies, as well as its admirable spirit of solidarity and cohesion. He also depicted the corruption of government officials, their preoccupation with the election campaign at the expense of their duties, and highlighted the poverty and injustice in rural Egypt, and the hardship and oppression suffered by its inhabitants. Amidst all this misery, the narrative is not devoid of the humor for which Al-Hakim was known.
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