"Some Egyptians sit out election, shun candidates; But presidential contenders seek to widen support" by Kareem Fahim and Liam Stack | New York Times, May 27, 2012
CAIRO - Faced with what he called an impossible choice - between a conservative Islamist with a rigid social agenda and a former minister with deep ties to the Mubarak government - Ahmed Abdel Fattah, 33, plans to sit out the remainder of the voting for Egypt’s president and hope for better choices in four years.
“I am not going to play in this dirty game,’’ Abdel Fattah, a subway worker, said Friday, explaining why he could not support either Mohammed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood candidate, or Ahmed Shafiq, former President Hosni Mubarak’s final prime minister, who will compete in a runoff vote next month. “This is not democracy. These elections are a joke.’’
That is democracy in the 21st century.
For some voters, the bubbling enthusiasm that ushered in the
country’s landmark presidential election has given way to anger and
apathy since candidates who generated excitement, with charisma or
progressive appeals, were eliminated from the race.
I know the feeling.
Sensing the disillusionment, and the likelihood that many voters could stay home, Morsi and Shafiq moved Saturday to widen their support, courting disqualified candidates and portraying themselves as more centrist - sometimes by drastically reversing their previous positions.
Looking more like an AmeriKan fix, 'er, election all the time.
I know the feeling.
Sensing the disillusionment, and the likelihood that many voters could stay home, Morsi and Shafiq moved Saturday to widen their support, courting disqualified candidates and portraying themselves as more centrist - sometimes by drastically reversing their previous positions.
Looking more like an AmeriKan fix, 'er, election all the time.
At a news conference in Cairo on Saturday, Shafiq, who had compared Egypt’s youthful revolutionaries to a disrespectful child, now praised the “martyrs’’ of the uprising and promised to return the fruits of the “glorious revolution’’ to the youth.
Revolution canceled, (buzzer sound).
He urged people to vote in the June runoff, and spoke kindly about several of his competitors, including Hamdeen Sabahi, the founder of a Nasserist party whose populist campaign drew millions of voters, giving him a surprising third-place finish in the unofficial vote tallies.
Uh-oh! I SMELL the STENCH of RIGGING!
"The dark horse is Hamdeen Sabahi, a poet turned populist campaigning as a follower of Gamal Abdel Nasser, the leader of the Egyptian revolution of 1952. Sabahi is campaigning on vows to increase the government’s role in the economy, provide more subsidies to workers and farmers, and take a tough line against Israel. His campaign has caught fire among those looking for an alternative to the Islamists and the Mubarak-era holdovers."
Ummm, WE HAVE OUR REAL WINNER!!!!
Saying he was willing to collaborate with other Egyptian political forces, Shafiq sought to quiet fears that he represented the government of his friend Mubarak, saying: “There is no turning back.’’
The Muslim Brotherhood, meanwhile, tried to ease a different strain of voter anxiety - fears that the Islamist group, which holds roughly half the seats in Parliament, would dominate Egyptian politics should Morsi be elected. Brotherhood officials were trying to meet with several of the disqualified candidates Saturday to discuss a possible coalition to challenge Shafiq.
But that effort seemed to run aground, as two former candidates, Amr Moussa and Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, released statements saying they were not endorsing Morsi or any candidate, though they did not say whether that would change in the future.
And Sabahi, whose supporters are coveted by both remaining candidates, seemed to be trying to keep his own campaign alive Saturday. A lawyer representing him told Reuters that the campaign had appealed to the presidential election commission to halt the runoff for reasons that include allegations of “irregularities’’ in the first round of voting.
Also on Saturday, former President Jimmy Carter, who led a delegation that monitored the first round of the elections, said there were “many violations’’ but added that they did not “violate the integrity of the elections as a whole.’’
Hey, wait a minute, that is what they say about our rig jobs -- meaning after feeling the sting and being ostracized by the Zionists after his 2006 book on Palestine Jimmy is back in the fold.
Even so, many Egyptians threw up their hands at the results.
Do I EVER UNDERSTAND THAT FEELING!
Some argued that the outcome was inevitable: that an electorate battered by a chaotic transition and under temporary military rule would easily reach for candidates who appealed to fear rather than hope.
Says who?
They feeling nostalgic for that iron fist, 'eh?
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A look at the campaign:
"Lawlessness is main issue in Egyptian vote; Candidates pledge action but differ on a crackdown" by David D. Kirkpatrick | New York Times, May 23, 2012
CAIRO - Parts of the ring road encircling the capital are dangerous no-man’s lands, unsafe to drive on, by day or night. Kidnappings and bank robberies are common around the city. And women report sexual assaults by taxi drivers, even in broad daylight.
Across the country, carjackers have grown so bold, they steal their victim’s cellphones and tell them to call back to negotiate for the return of their cars. And in Sharqiya, a rural province in the Nile Delta, villagers have taken the law into their own hands - mutilating and burning the bodies of accused thugs and hanging their corpses from lampposts.
Sometimes things reach a point where they are just doing what needs to be done.
On the eve of the vote to choose Egypt’s first president since the ouster of Hosni Mubarak, this pervasive lawlessness is the biggest change in daily life since the revolution and the most salient issue in the presidential race. Random, violent crime was almost unheard-of when the police state was strong.
Didn't Rumsfeld say something about democracy being messy?
Now all the presidential candidates vow to make the restoration of security their top priority - pledging to get the police back to work, restore their morale, and teach them about human rights. But the tone of their approach to the problem could not be more different.
While the two Islamist contenders talk about reforming the police force, Mubarak-era officials in the running emphasize cracking down with a strong hand. Amr Moussa, a former foreign minister under Mubarak, accused an Islamist opponent of fomenting anarchy by attending a protest, while Ahmed Shafik, a former Air Force general, has bragged that he could clear the streets of downtown Cairo in a matter of hours by turning off the power.
In Sharqiya, an Islamist stronghold, crime victims, like Mohamed Ibrahim Youssef, 63, often pine for the perceived security of the Mubarak era.
I don't think I can read this agenda-pushing shit anymore, readers. I'm going to have to eliminate the Boston Globe from my reading list.
Three months ago, Youssef saw his son, Mahmoud, 29, killed, and another son, Abdullah, 24, crippled when carjackers opened fire with shotguns. A mob of villagers avenged the death by killing and incinerating one of the suspected attackers.
Youssef said he will vote for Shafik, who also served as Mubarak’s last prime minister. “He is a military man who has been raised on discipline,’’ Yousef said, explaining his support for Shafik.
Just what the new Egypt needs!
“It is becoming the culture of the Egyptian countryside to confront thuggery with thuggery, to take matters into our own hands,’’ he lamented.
Well?!!?!! You fight fire with fire.
Some say Egyptian police officers know only two extremes: the excessive brutality they used to employ, or the timid approach they have taken since the revolution.
Timid approach, right. Pffft!
And what are they, Sith Lords or something? One extreme or the other?
Others contend that the lack of effective law enforcement is a grand conspiracy to spread nostalgia for the ousted authoritarian government. Said Sadek, a sociology professor at the American University in Cairo, argued that the internal security forces had, in effect, gone on an undeclared strike in protest against their public indictment for the repression of the past.
What indictment?
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"Muslim party claims lead in Egypt; Vote counting begins in nation’s presidential race" by Hamza Hendawi and By Maggie Michael | Associated Press, May 25, 2012
CAIRO - The reliability of the Muslim Brotherhood’s polls could not be confirmed.
(Blog editor just had to laugh considering the crap polls to which he's exposed)
Regional television channels, citing their own exit polls, also placed Mohammed Morsi as the top finisher, with rivals Ahmed Shafiq and Hamdeen Sabahi vying for second.
Shafiq, a former air force commander, was Mubarak’s last prime minister and was himself forced from his post by protests soon after his former boss. Opponents brand him as a “feloul,’’ or remnant, of the old, autocratic regime, but he has drawn support from Egyptians who crave stability or fear Islamists.
Sabahi is a leftist who had been a dark horse before gaining steadily in opinion polls over the past week, attracting Egyptians who want neither an Islamist nor a former regime figure.
Like I said, YOU'RE REAL WINNER!!
The Brotherhood is hoping that a victory in the presidential race will seal a political rise that begain when its longtime opponent, Mubarak, was ousted from power on Feb. 11, 2011. The group won just under half the seats in parliament in elections held late last year, establishing it as the biggest political bloc.
But it had troubles in the presidential campaign. Its first choice for candidate, deputy leader Khairat el-Shater, was disqualified because of a Mubarak-era conviction. Morsi was the Brotherhood’s second choice and was seen as less charismatic.
He also faced competition for religious voters from Abdel-Moneim Abolfotoh, a moderate Islamist who split from the Brotherhood last year and has also drawn liberals with his more inclusive vision.
One of the prominent secular candidates, former foreign minister Amr Moussa, made an emotional appeal three hours before voting ended, urging supporters to get to the polls. The last-minute call suggested his exit polls were not going his way.
Earlier, Moussa gave a surprise interview to Al-Arabiya television, calling on Shafiq - his main rival for the secular vote - to drop out of the race. Rattled with his hair unkempt, Moussa launched a scathing attack on Shafiq, saying that if elected Shafiq would “re-create’’ the Mubarak regime.
Both Shafiq and the Brotherhood’s Morsi have repeatedly spoken of the dangers, real or imaginary, of the other becoming president. Morsi has said there would be massive street protests if a “feloul’’ wins, arguing it could only be the result of rigging.
Shafiq, on his part, has said it would be unacceptable if an Islamist takes the presidential office, echoing the rhetoric of Mubarak, his longtime mentor who devoted much of his 29-year rule to fighting Islamists. Still, Shafiq’s campaign has said it would accept the election’s result.
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"Egyptian presidential runoff could renew old power struggle; Islamist expected to face ex-general" by David D. Kirkpatrick and Kareem Fahim | new york times, May 26, 2012
CAIRO - The runoff to become Egypt’s first freely elected president will probably be a contest between two of the most powerful and polarizing forces in Egyptian society representing different visions for the future character of the nation: the Muslim Brotherhood and the military.
After a wild and fluid two-month campaign by more than a dozen candidates, Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood and Ahmed Shafiq, a former air force general who served as President Hosni Mubarak’s final prime minister, emerged with the most votes Friday, according to independent tallies and the official state news media.
Morsi won about a quarter of the vote and Shafiq slightly less,
effectively reprising the decades-old power struggle between a
military-backed, secular strongman and Islamists intent on a more
disciplined, religious-infused system of governance.
For many here, the choice dimmed the hope that last year’s popular revolution would ultimately chart a middle path, one that united rather than polarized, transcending differences instead of exacerbating them. But Morsi and Shafiq represent extremes, offering a wrenching choice for the majority of voters who had cast their ballots for one of the other candidates.
For many here, the choice dimmed the hope that last year’s popular revolution would ultimately chart a middle path, one that united rather than polarized, transcending differences instead of exacerbating them. But Morsi and Shafiq represent extremes, offering a wrenching choice for the majority of voters who had cast their ballots for one of the other candidates.
The runners-up were outspoken opponents of the Brotherhood and the Mubarak government. Although Shafiq never explicitly promised to resurrect the old order, he campaigned as a strongman who would crack down on street protests, restore law and order, and check the power of the Islamists, offering a worldview consistent with Mubarak.
And Morsi, facing a challenge from an Islamist rival during the campaign, reverted to a conservative and expressly religious appeal, portraying his platform as a distillation of Islam itself while promising the implementation of Islamic law. The results put the Muslim Brotherhood, the secretive 84-year-old revival society that exported Islamist politics to the world, within reach of a monopoly on the presidency and Parliament.
Though official final results are to be released in a few days, early returns show that about 20 percent voted for Abdel-Moneim Abolfotoh, a former Brotherhood leader campaigning as both an Islamist and a liberal in a bid to break out of Egypt’s culture war. And another roughly 20 percent voted for Hamdeen Sabahi, a secular populist with a record of fighting the Mubarak government on behalf of the poor.
(Fifth place went to Amr Moussa, a former foreign minister who presented a softer and more conciliatory version of Shafiq’s secular law-and-order appeal.)
“It is a shock,’’ said Ahmed Kabany, 38, an engineer, noting that together Abolfotoh and Sabahi received more votes than either Morsi or Shafiq. The chaos of the extended transition since Mubarak’s ouster “made a lot of Egyptians hate the revolution so they turned to the same crooks,’’ Kabany said. “I don’t want either one, so I am not going to vote.’’
The journalist and author Ashraf Khalil summed up the same dismay in an online commentary: “If it’s really Shafiq/Morsi, then I’m launching a ‘vote-for-Satan campaign,’ ’’ he wrote. “Why settle for a lesser evil?’’
The two candidates represent starkly different visions of Egypt’s future. The Brotherhood promises to build what it considers the first expressly Islamic democracy. Shafiq promises mainly stability and continuity with the past.
If Egyptians wanted that they would not have revolted.
In matters of foreign policy, both have pledged to continue Egypt’s alliance with the United States and respect the peace treaty with Israel. But Morsi has been a sharp critic of Israel over its treatment of the Palestinians. Where Shafiq would most likely continue to distance Egypt from Hamas, the militant Palestinian faction, Morsi would build much closer ties to the group.
You can see who is going to win the runoff, no?
The Brotherhood has said it intends to stand as an umbrella over both Hamas and the rival Western-backed Fattah faction in the hope of bringing them together to put new pressure on Israel to recognize a Palestinian state.
That simply can not and will not be allowed.
The race is further complicated by the uncertainty about the powers of the next president. A Parliament-picked committee that was supposed to draft a new charter has become deadlocked in a dispute between Islamists and liberals. The military council that has governed Egypt since Mubarak’s ouster says it will issue an interim constitution to define the president’s powers but it has not done so.
See: Egyptians Creating Constitution
What is taking so long?
Morsi, considered less charismatic than the other candidates, relied mainly on the Brotherhood’s political machine to turn out voters. He sat out the one televised debate.
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Also see: UN consultant shot dead in upscale Cairo neighborhood
Related: Egypt’s election results: Palestinians Win & Zionists Lose?
