Egypt has now completed the first round of the the third stage of its three-stage parliamentary elections, and is now completing the run-offs for the third stage. Egypt’s electoral system is complex and sometimes confusing to outsiders because the same election involves three stages, each for a specified geographic region of the country, followed by run-off votes in districts where no candidate received a majority. So there are six total election days. Following the first two stages, with roughly 300 out of 454 seats determined, the ruling National Democratic Party had 195 seats, the banned Muslim Brotherhood, running candidates as independents, claimed 76, while the democratic opposition parties all combined had a measly ten seats. The remainder are held by non-aligned independents.
According to Al-Quds al-Arabi, the MB is expected to obtain roughly 20 seats during this third stage, giving them close to 100 total seats. I will be writing a more detailed wrap-up of the results with analysis later in the week.
Reuters has an initial report on the final round of voting on Wednesday. The violence seems to be getting worse, with police using tear gas and shooting rubber bullets at voters. At one station, voters were blocked from the station, so some voters got ladders and tried to climb over walls to vote, but the police took the ladders. Even more worrying, according to Al-Quds, the Egyptian government decided to arrest Ayman Nour, the leader of the liberal opposition party Al-Ghad, based on forgery charges. Nour was first arrested in January and released in March. The court order states that Nour and six others are to be incarcerated beginning Dec. 10.
Egypt: The Brotherhood Up, the Ruling Party Weakened, the Democratic Opposition All But Out
The Machete & the Purse: Egypt’s Second-Round Elections, Like the First, But Worse
As I have argued in previous posts, the Egyptian government is fighting radical Islam exactly the wrong way. They are using violence against MB supporters while continuing to suppress all opposition from democratic reformers. The argument that the U.S. should support Mubarak as an alternative to the Islamists has long past its sell by date. This news simply reaffirms my argument that the $2 billion in aid that the U.S. gives to Egypt should be cancelled forthwith. This is not the first time that Mubarak’s regime has arrested a member of the democratic opposition on trumped-up charges, and it will very likely not be the last.
Kirk H. Sowell, Arab World Analysis.com
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