"Landmark vote in Egypt clouded by growing unrest" November 28, 2011|By Hamza Hendawi, Associated Press
CAIRO - The vote is being marred by turmoil in the streets, and residents are sharply polarized and confused about the nation’s direction.
Nine months after the popular uprising that ousted Mubarak, protesters are back in the streets. This time, they are demanding that military ruler Field Marshal Mohamed Tantawi and his council of generals step down....
The political crisis has cast doubt on the legitimacy of the vote, which is expected to be dominated by Islamic parties. That could render the Parliament that emerges irrelevant....
Last night in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, the center of the original uprising, a crowd of a few thousand people braved a rare rainstorm to keep the round-the-clock protests going.
Tantawi and other generals have pledged to ensure a legitimate election, and troops and police began deploying yesterday evening to protect polling centers. Foreign groups sent missions to witness the vote, but officially the military banned international election observers.
A high turnout will probably benefit the military because the vote is a crucial part of a road map it proposed....
I smell a rigging already!
High turnout may also undermine the tens of thousands of antimilitary protesters, many of whom see the vote as inconsequential.
I wasn't seeing the vote that way, but I am now.
It could also dilute the Islamist vote because the majority of Egyptians, while pious, prefer separation of religion and politics.
Wait until the votes start coming in.
The uprising that forced Mubarak out after nearly 30 years in power left his regime almost entirely intact.
And it shows.
The weeks that followed his ouster saw a series of massive protests that pressured the military into caving in to some of the revolutionaries’ demands, including the arrest of Mubarak and his two sons. Mubarak is now on trial on charges carrying the death penalty; his two sons face corruption charges.
Relations between the military and the youth groups behind the uprising steadily deteriorated, primarily over the trial of civilians before military tribunals - at least 12,000 since February - and other human-rights violations.
Nothing has changed. That's why Egyptians are back in the streets.
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Also see: Egyptians rush on voting deadline
"Egypt’s vote spurred by duty, defiance; Large crowds show peaceful determination" November 29, 2011|By David D. Kirkpatrick, New York Times
CAIRO - Unexpectedly large crowds of voters turned out yesterday to cast their votes in Egypt’s first parliamentary election since the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak, a vote that seemed to blend vindication of the democratic struggle with uncertainty over the revolution’s final outcome.
Voters formed long and peaceful lines under the watchful eyes of a heavy police and army guard to cast votes in rich and poor neighborhoods across Cairo. In several places, lines stretched as long as a block along the banks of the Nile, and there were similar reports from Alexandria and Port Said.
In Tahrir Square, the epicenter of Egypt’s democracy struggle, several thousand protesters maintained their 10-day occupation to press demands for the immediate end to military rule. But that did not seem to dampen the enthusiasm shown by some Egyptians for the vote....
Egyptians displayed little of the pride and exultation that Tunisians described as they went to the polls for the first vote of the Arab Spring just one month ago.
See: Taking Time For the Tunisian Vote
Instead, voters in Egypt talked of duty and defiance, of a determination to exercise the rights they believed their revolution had earned them even though few expressed confidence in the integrity of the vote count....
The Muslim Brotherhood, the group that defined Islamist politics, is poised to win a dominant role in the Parliament of the country that for nearly six decades was the paradigmatic secular dictatorship of the Arab world. The Brotherhood’s new Freedom and Justice Party was the best organized to inform voters and assist them in getting to their polling places.
The Brotherhood faces competition from Islamic-oriented parties both to its right, founded by the ultraconservatives known as Salafis, and to its left, the Center Party and the Egyptian Current, each founded by moderate former Brotherhood members.
Among the liberals, there are two major coalitions. One, the Egyptian Bloc, is an anti-Islamist alliance of culturally liberal parties with economic policies ranging from business-friendly to state-run socialist. The other, the Revolution Continues Alliance, includes the Egyptian Current and a party founded by young leaders of the revolution.
Election monitors and human rights groups said voting irregularities appeared to reflect predictable disorganization more than a conspiracy to the influence the outcome, and the unexpectedly large turnout overshadowed all else.
This vote is starting to stink.
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"Egypt’s military takes credit for strong election turnout; Perceived success takes wind out of Cairo protests" November 30, 2011|By Hamza Hendawi, Associated Press
CAIRO - Egypt’s military rulers were quick to take credit yesterday for a strong turnout in the first elections since Hosni Mubarak’s ouster, a vote that appeared to be the country’s freest and fairest in living memory.
The fact that the AmeriKan media blesses them makes this all the more suspect.
The military did not field candidates in the parliamentary vote. But winning bragging rights for a smooth, successful, and virtually fraud-free election would significantly boost the ruling generals in their bitter struggle with youthful protesters in Cairo’s Tahrir Square calling for them to transfer power immediately to a civilian authority.
Oh, this is now REALLY STARTING to STINK!!
“When we plan, we execute, and, at the end, we succeed,’’ Major General Ismail Etman, a member of the ruling military council, said in a television interview. He compared the elections with one of the Egyptian military’s proudest moments - when it battled Israeli forces across the Suez Canal in 1973.
They pulled off something.
Even before two days of voting began Monday, protesters were accusing the military of trying to cling to power and safeguard its interests under any future government. Now, they warn the ruling council will try to use the success of the election to cement its hold on power.
Already, the ruling council’s perceived success seems to have taken the wind out of the Tahrir protests, at least temporarily....
As you read these pieces just keep asking yourself cui bono.
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"Brotherhood leading election in Egypt; But liberal and hard-line Islamic rivals competitive" December 01, 2011|By Maggie Michael, Associated Press
CAIRO - Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood was leading in initial, partial results from Egypt’s parliamentary elections but it was facing stiff competition in many places both from more hard-line Islamic groups and from a liberal-secular alliance, judges overseeing counting said yesterday.
The trend from results so far mirrored expectations that the Brotherhood, Egypt’s most powerful fundamentalist group, would make the strongest showing in the first parliamentary elections since the fall of former President Hosni Mubarak.
Still, it was too early to extrapolate whether their victory was bigger or smaller than expected, with counting still continuing from the first round of voting, which took place on Monday and Tuesday.
The Brotherhood had the biggest share of votes in the capital, Cairo, in the country’s second-biggest city, Alexandria, on the Mediterranean coast, in the southern city of Luxor, in Port Said on the Suez Canal, and in Kafr el-Sheikh, a major city in the Nile Delta, according to judges in each area.
The Nour Party, made up of ultraconservative Islamic Salafis, and an alliance of liberal-secular parties known as the Egyptian Bloc came next, roughly running at the same rate, the judges said. They were unable to give proportions for each faction....
The Parliament that will emerge from the process will have severe limitations on it, imposed by the military, which took power after Mubarak’s Feb. 11 fall. It’s not even clear how long the Parliament will sit. The new constitution is supposed to be drafted and approved by late June, and that may require a whole new election.
The ruling generals have said they will put together the new government, not Parliament, and lawmakers will have no power to dissolve it. In theory, the Parliament is tasked to elect a 100-member assembly to write the constitution. But the military has insisted that it will choose most of the assembly’s members.
The Brotherhood, however, is likely to demand real powers for the Parliament, possibly leading to frictions with the military.
In many ways, the race serves most as the first real gauge of the various political factions’ strength. Under Mubarak’s nearly 30-year rule, elections were largely rigged to ensure victories by his ruling party.
Where aren't they?
The Brotherhood, which was banned, ran candidates as independents and was the strongest opposition force. Officially approved opposition parties were kept weak by the regime.
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"Islamists likely to get majority in Egypt vote" December 02, 2011|By Ben Hubbard, Associated Press
CAIRO - Following an unexpectedly large turnout, Egypt’s election commission announced a delay in final results for the first-round of parliamentary elections yesterday while judges monitoring the count said Islamist parties are poised to gain a parliamentary majority. The results are now expected today.
The political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s largest and best organized group, could take as much as 45 percent of the seats being contested. The ultra-fundamentalist Nour party and a bloc coalition of liberal parties were competing for second place, the judges said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the count is incomplete.
Together, Islamist parties would have a majority, which could allow them to steer the long-secular US ally in a more religiously conservative direction. Egypt would follow Tunisia and Morocco, where Islamist parties have won majorities in Parliament since the outbreak of Arab Spring uprisings. Islamist parties present themselves as better able to rule justly than the region’s long-serving dictators, who often rule with Western support....
I will say one thing for them: at least the corruption is kept to a minimum because they view it as stealing from God.
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"Egypt’s parliamentary vote draws record turnout" December 03, 2011|By Alice Fordham, Washington Post
CAIRO - A record 62 percent of voters cast ballots in the first phase of Egypt’s parliamentary elections this week, the country’s High Judicial Election Commission announced yesterday, a turnout that analysts say reflects broad approval of the ruling military council’s plan for transition to civilian government despite mass protests against its authority.
At a chaotic and twice-postponed news conference, the head of the commission, Abdel Moez Ibrahim, announced clear winners of four seats and said there would be run-off polls after more ambiguous results in most other areas. The initial numbers nevertheless indicated that, as predicted, Islamist parties had done well....
Meanwhile, protesters in Cairo’s Tahrir Square marched with banners, paraded coffins, and released black balloons in memory of more than 40 demonstrators killed in clashes last week after Egypt’s interim military rulers cracked down on rallies calling for its departure.
But the resignation of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, or SCAF, seemed a distant dream after a week of successful elections that concluded yesterday with the partial unveiling of a Cabinet by Prime Minister Kamal el-Ganzouri, appointed after his predecessor resigned in protest at continued military rule....
In Tahrir Square, there was none of the uproar of last week, when hundreds of thousands of people gathered amid clouds of tear gas and volleys of bullets, both rubber-coated and live, according to Health Ministry reports.
In the encampment in the center, a few dozen protesters, many with broken limbs and eye injuries sustained in the violence last week, said they had boycotted the elections and would stay until the end of the military rule they see as an extension of the government of Hosni Mubarak, who was ousted in February after an 18-day uprising.
The protesters are right about military rule.
But the police officers and soldiers were gone, and although people chanted “Military rule is shameful’’ and other anticouncil slogans, their numbers were much diminished.
“I think the high level of participation in the elections this week sent a message to the people in Tahrir that the majority would like a return to stability, and that they accept more or less the timetable set by SCAF for a return to civilian rule,’’ said Cairo University political science professor Mustafa Kamel el-Sayed....
They would prefer the security of the slave?
See: Egypt's Evolving Revolution
Think they would take him back?
Sayed also noted a sense of frustration that the political groups that started the revolution did not do well. “That dampened the atmosphere in Tahrir,’’ he said.
If they boycotted the vote like told that would make sense; if not, then this election stinks all the more. Really sets up the military as the last line of defense against the Islamists that secular Egypt doesn't really favor(?).
Peter Harling of the International Crisis Group said that many people in the square were clinging to the euphoria of the February uprising rather than negotiating the difficult process of transition. “These people are not engaging with politics because politics are disappointing and petty, and this is why it was so easy for the military to ignore them,’’ he said.
In the nearby Abbasiya area yesterday, a rally was held by supporters of the military who say they represent the so-called silent majority. They, too, were fewer in number than last week, but their tone was triumphant as they insisted that the council is needed to maintain stability.
“I love the people here in Abbasiya and in Tahrir,’’ said Abdelhamid Mehdi, a 23-year-old preacher. “But in Tahrir, they want to completely purify everything now… . This is a critical time for Egypt. She is in the intensive care unit, and they want to tell her to leave, take away her oxygen, and get up before she is healed.’’
The protesters that made all this possible(?) are the threat?
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"Egyptians debate role of Islamic law in new democracy" December 04, 2011|By David D. Kirkpatrick, New York Times
CAIRO - To Sheik Abdel Moneim el-Shahat, the Muslim Brotherhood’s call to apply only the broad principles of Islamic law allows too much freedom.
Shahat is a leader of the ultraconservative Islamists known as Salafis, whose coalition of parties is running second behind the Brotherhood party in the early returns of Egypt’s parliamentary elections. He and his allies are demanding strict prohibitions against interest-bearing loans, alcohol, and “fornication,’’ with traditional Islamic corporal punishment like stoning for adultery.
Oh, I REALLY, REALLY LIKE that FIRST ONE!
“I want to say: citizenship restricted by Islamic Shariah, freedom restricted by Islamic Shariah, equality restricted by Islamic Shariah,’’ he said in a public debate. “Shariah is obligatory, not just the principles - freedom and justice and all that.’’
The unexpected electoral success of the Salafis - reported to have won about 25 percent of the votes in the first round of the elections, second only to the roughly 40 percent for the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party - is terrifying Egyptian liberals and troubling the West.
But their new clout is also presenting a challenge to the Muslim Brotherhood, in part by plunging it into a polarizing Islamist-against-Islamist debate over the application of Islamic law in Egypt’s promised democracy, a debate the Brotherhood had worked hard to avoid.
“The Salafis want to have that conversation right now, and the Brotherhood doesn’t,’’ said Shadi Hamid, a researcher with the Brookings Doha Center, a Brookings Institution project in Qatar. “The Brotherhood is not interested in talking about Islamic law right now because they have other priorities that are more important. But the Salafis are going to insist on putting religion in the forefront of the debate, and that will be very difficult for the Brotherhood to ignore.’’
Sounds like the split in the Republican Party here in AmeriKa.
The Brotherhood, the venerable group that virtually invented the Islamist movement eight decades ago, is at its core a middle-class missionary institution, led not by religious scholars but by doctors, lawyers, and professionals. It has long sought to move Egypt toward a more orthodox Islamic society from the bottom up, one person and family at a time.
Related: The use of the Muslim Brotherhood by MI6 and the CIA in Egypt, Syria, and Iran
After a long struggle in the shadows of the Mubarak dictatorship, its leaders have sought to avoid potentially divisive conversations about the details of Islamic law that might set off alarms about an Islamist takeover. But their evasiveness on the subject has played into long-term suspicions of even fellow Islamists that they are too concerned with their own power.
The Salafis are political newcomers, directed by religious leaders who favor long beards in imitation of the Prophet Mohammed. Many frown on the mixing of the sexes, refusing to shake hands with women let alone condoning any sort of political activity by them.
Although their parties are required to include female candidates, they usually print pictures of flowers instead of the women’s faces on campaign posters. And while the Salafis’ ideology strikes many Egyptians as extreme and anachronistic, their sheiks command built-in networks of devoted followers, and even voters who disagree with their puritanical doctrine often credit the Salafis with integrity and authenticity....
Essam el-Erian, a Brotherhood leader and a top candidate, declared that the party believed in nonsectarian citizenship for all, that Christians and Muslims should enjoy equal rights as “sons of the nation’’ in the eyes of a neutral state, and that the next Constitution should protect free expression.
Leaders of the Brotherhood’s party have endorsed public commitments to protect individual rights.
The party has not proposed to regulate the content of arts or entertainment, women’s work or dress, or even the religious content of public education.
The party’s platform calls for smaller government to limit corruption and liberalize the economy. Instead of coercion, the party proposes to nudge Egyptian society by the power of example.
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"New Egypt election results show Islamists dominant" December 04, 2011|Sarah El Deeb, Associated Press
Islamist parties captured an overwhelming majority of votes in the first round of Egypt’s parliamentary elections, setting up a power struggle with the much weaker liberals behind the uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak 10 months ago. A hard-line religious group that wants to impose strict Islamic law made a strong showing with nearly a quarter of the ballots, according to results released Sunday.
Another thing this does is create a "clash of civilizations," cui bono?
The tallies offer only a partial indication of how the new parliament will look. There are still two more rounds of voting in 18 of the country’s 27 provinces over the coming month and runoff elections on Monday and Tuesday to determine almost all of the seats allocated for individuals in the first round. But the grip of the Islamists over the next parliament appears set, particularly considering their popularity in provinces voting in the next rounds.
The High Election Commission said the Islamic fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party garnered 36.6 percent of the 9.7 million valid ballots cast for party lists. The Nour Party, a more hard-line Islamist group, captured 24.4 percent.
The strong Islamist showing worries liberal parties, and even some religious parties, who fear the two groups will work to push a religious agenda. It has also left many of the youthful activists behind the uprising that ousted Mubarak in February feeling that their revolution has been hijacked....
By the generals!
The Brotherhood has emerged as the most organized and cohesive political force in these elections. But with no track record of governing, it is not yet clear how they will behave in power. The party has positioned itself as a moderate Islamist party that wants to implement Islamic law without sacrificing personal freedoms, and has said it will not seek an alliance with the more radical Nour party....
The ultraconservative Salafis who dominate the Nour Party are newcomers to the political scene. They had previously frowned upon involvement in politics and shunned elections. They espouse a strict interpretation of Islam similar to that of Saudi Arabia, where the sexes are segregated and women must be veiled and are barred from driving. Its members say laws contradicting religion can’t be passed.
Many in Egypt’s Coptic Christian population, which makes up 10 percent of the country, fear the Salafis will push for laws that will make them second-class citizens.
If the Muslim Brotherhood chooses not to form an alliance with the Salafis, the liberal Egyptian Bloc — which came in third with 13.4 percent of the votes — could counterbalance hard-line elements.
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"Egypt’s leading party speaks of ‘harmony’ with army; Military insists it will appoint prime minister" December 07, 2011|By Maggie Michael, Associated Press
CAIRO - The leader of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist group expected to dominate the country’s next Parliament, said it does not seek to get into a power struggle with the ruling military council over the formation of the next government.
Related:
"the generals.... cozying up to the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood.... cultivating ties with the powerful Muslim Brotherhood.... praised the Brotherhood"
I think we know who is winning the next round of rigged Egyptian elections I said at the time.
Egypt’s military, which took control of the country from Hosni Mubarak upon his ouster in February, is insisting that it - not the Parliament - will choose the next prime minister and his Cabinet, setting the stage for a contest over who will chart the nation’s course. Activists already critical of the military’s handling of the transition period have been pushing the generals to shed their powers over government and deliver the country to full civilian rule.
The Brotherhood, which is leading the first round of parliamentary elections, had said previously it was expecting to form the Cabinet if its lead holds up over subsequent rounds of voting that finish in March.
However, Brotherhood leader Mohammed Badie is sounding a less confrontational tone.
“We must live in harmony, not only with the military council, but with all of Egypt’s factions, or else the conclusion is zero,’’ Badie told the private Al-Mehwar TV station in an interview late Monday.
“There will be reconciliation between the three powers: the Parliament, the government, and the military ruling council.’’
Badie tried to play down a potential conflict with the military, saying: “They will not insist and we will not insist.’’
In a clear sign that the military is not giving up its powers over choosing the executive, General Hassan el-Rueini, a member of the military council, said again that the new Parliament will not have the authority to form a government.
The voting for Parliament is being held in stages....
Who cares now? The military just said those elections mean nothing.
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