Egypt's first post-Revolution parliamentary elections Monday 11/28/11

[Death_of_Rats]

@Qin_Shi_Huangdi

That is because the Western culture is superior to a culture or rather interpretation of a culture that practices subjugation of women and religious minorities. Look at Ataturk for instance.

Riiiight. Because no politcal party in America would ever promote Government control over a woman’s body or legislate one religious view over minority religious beliefs. :dubious:

[BigT]

@Death_of_Rats

Riiiight. Because no politcal party in America would ever promote Government control over a woman’s body or legislate one religious view over minority religious beliefs. :dubious:

Right, because viewing a fetus as being alive and not allowing a woman to kill it is the same thing as treating women as slaves.

[Zakalwe]

@BigT

Right, because viewing a fetus as being alive and not allowing a woman to kill it is the same thing as treating women as slaves.

[hijack]Yeah. Actually it pretty much is. A slave to the fetus, but still a slave.[/hijack]

[BrainGlutton]

Poll results delayed, to be released Friday.

It’s just the first stage, anyway:

The vote on Monday and Tuesday in Cairo and Alexandria and other areas was the first of three stages when voters from nine of the country’s 27 governorates went to the polls to elect a new lower house of parliament.

The rest of the country follows next month and in January.

Results for the party list seats, which make up two-thirds of the People’s Assembly, will not be available until January.

Unofficial numbers have begun to leak out, though, mostly from sources within the parties.

A source in the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), the Muslim Brotherhood’s political party, said on Wednesday that it had won roughly 40 per cent of the vote, according to its own exit polls.

[Qin_Shi_Huangdi]

@BrainGlutton

:rolleyes: Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood is not the sort of organization that’s going to turn Egypt into Saudi Arabia, or want to.

I will wait and see for now, but considering they have to cooperate with the Salafists and compete with them we may see them trying to “out-reactionary” each other so to speak.

[BrainGlutton]

@Qin_Shi_Huangdi

I will wait and see for now, but considering they have to cooperate with the Salafists and compete with them we may see them trying to “out-reactionary” each other so to speak.

Maybe not.

The Brotherhood has emerged as the most organised 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.

Looks like the MB will be the center of Egyptian politics and Nour will be the far-right. From the center, MB can ally with either end, and they say they don’t want to ally with Nour.

[BrainGlutton]

And it looks like the Army ain’t gonna let go easily.

Egypt’s military rulers have forcefully asserted their role in the country’s uncertain revolutionary politics, declaring their intention to preside over the drafting of a new constitution and insisting that the early results of parliamentary voting do not represent Egyptian society.

In a rare briefing with foreign journalists on Wednesday, army General Mukhtar al-Mulla said that parliament’s ability to choose a 100-member assembly that will draft the new constitution will be constrained by military-approved “parameters”, according to media reports.

Just a day after the first round of parliamentary voting finished, delivering Islamists roughly two-thirds of the available seats, Mulla, a member of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), said the country’s new parliament could not be broadly representative of Egypt because elections are occurring “in such unstable conditions”.

“What we are seeing is free and fair elections … but they certainly don’t represent all sectors of society,” Mulla said, according to the Guardian.

Oh? Who is being left out?

[BrainGlutton]

Polls open for second round of voting.

[BrainGlutton]

Third round of three starts today. MB still leading the pack.

[BrainGlutton]

Final results are in: MB’s FJP gets 47% of the seats in the lower house of Parliament; hardline-Islamist al-Nour gets 24%, liberal al-Wafd 7%, the rest of the seats to smaller parties.

So what the world is going to have to deal with, in Egypt, is either an MB government, or a de facto military government like they’ve got now.

Elections to the upper house in February, then elections to a Constituent Assembly to write a new Constitution; but, based on what we’ve seen here, MB should predominate at every stage.

[BrainGlutton]

Oh, great. The constitutional court just ordered Parliament dissolved.

In another setback for Egypt’s fledgling political process, elected officials have been disqualified and the lower house of parliament dissolved.

The court ruled on Thursday that one third of the seats in the Islamist-dominated parliament were invalid, stirring fresh uncertainty in the politically divided country.

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), the country’s ruling military council, then announced that if any part of the parliament is illegal, then the entire body should be dissolved.

Egypt’s constitutional court also ruled against a law that would have barred deposed president Hosni Mubarak’s last prime minister Ahmed Shafiq from standing in this weekend’s presidential poll runoff.

After conflicting reports in Egyptian media over whether a third, or the entire, parliament was to be dismissed, Al Jazeera’s Rawya Rageh obtained a copy of the court decision, which explicitly states that the entire parliament is dismissed because of “constitutional violations”.

[Marley23]

I don’t know if this is horrible news because it throws out the election results, or good because corrupt results aren’t being allowed to stand. I guess it depends on whether they can run a better election next time.

[Marley23]

@Marley23

I don’t know if this is horrible news because it throws out the election results, or good because corrupt results aren’t being allowed to stand. I guess it depends on whether they can run a better election next time.

I guess this comment didn’t address the possibility that the elections were legit and the court’s ruling is not. I don’t know which of those is the case.

[Nobody]

@Marley23

I guess this comment didn’t address the possibility that the elections were legit and the court’s ruling is not. I don’t know which of those is the case.

That’s my guess. I think it’s an obvious power grab by the military.

It’s just my opinion, so no cites to back it up.

[BrainGlutton]

Apparently, Parliament refuses to consider itself dissolved. However, “Soldiers have already been stationed around the parliament, with orders not to allow in MPs.”

[Nobody]

OK, now that Egypt is keeping all legislative and a lot of executive power for itself,
New York Times

@NYT

the generals sought Monday to reassure the public that they had no intention of re-establishing a military-backed autocracy, although they did not back away from their effective seizure of legislative power.
…
They insisted that the legislative power they had claimed for themselves was “restricted.” Although they acknowledged that they would have a monopoly on all lawmaking powers and control of the national budget, they said that the new president — presumably Mr. Morsi — would retain a veto over any new laws. The president will also name the prime minister and other cabinet officials.
…
The generals also declined to back away from the core of an interim charter they issued late Sunday night, just as the polls closed, that removed the military and the defense minister from presidential authority and oversight.

Of course, the military never wanted parliament dissolved :rolleyes:
Guardian

@Guardian

The military rulers also claimed they were unhappy that the supreme court dissolved parliament - “our biggest achievement” - and said they had no control over the court.

And finally, although it seems like Mohammed Mursi has won, the official results won’t be until Thursday. Plenty of time for “surprise” victory for the general’s favorite, Ahmed Shafiq. Or maybe the courts that the generals have no control over will declare the presidential elections null and void too. Probably neither will happen, but I wouldn’t put it past them.

Anyway, will the Egyptian people have it in them to protest again against military rule, or will they just go grudgingly along with it? The Muslim Brotherhood is threatening protests, but that seems to be it.

[BrainGlutton]

Ooh! Now this is going to get interesting! President Morsy just summoned Parliament to reconvene, in defiance of the military’s orders.