Egyptians hold third round of elections as Mubarak faces prosecutors

Egyptians hold third round of elections as Mubarak faces prosecutors

The final round of Egyptian parliamentary elections began today with run-offs to be held on January 10 and 11, completing the first parliamentary vote since the ouster of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. The polling will take place in nine provinces including the Christian dominated rural south, the Nile Delta region north of Cairo, and the tourist regions of south Sinai. Although up to this point the elections have been observed mostly without major irregularities, concerns were raised last week when police carried out raids and disrupted the work of pro-democracy and rights groups in election monitoring. The ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces claimed they were investigating alleged illegal foreign funding of political parties. Thus far, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party has claimed the lead in the first two phases of polling, and are expected to show similar success in the current round. Meanwhile, the prosecution has begun its case against Mubarak and 10 other defendants including his sons Gamal and Alaa as well as former Interior Minister Habib al-Adly. Prosecutor Mustafa Suleiman claimed Mubarak was “a tyrannical leader who sought to hand power to his younger son Gamal, who spread corruption in the country and opened the door to his friends and relatives, ruining the country without any accountability.” Mubarak has been accused of involvement in the killing of over 800 protesters in the government crackdown that lead to his overthrow.

Headlines  

• The Arab League has called an emergency meeting on whether to withdraw monitors. Meanwhile, Syria’s State News Agency, SANA, has accused “terrorists” for an oil pipeline explosion.
• Israeli and Palestinian negotiators are meeting today in talks mediated by Jordan, with January 26 as a Quartet deadline for return to direct negotiations.
• After a 10-day naval drill Iran warned a U.S. aircraft carrier not to return to the Persian Gulf and threatened the closure of vital oil passageway, the Strait of Hormuz, if new sanctions are imposed.
• A bombing that hit the convoy of Iraq’s Sunni Finance Minister, Rafe al-Essawi, has increased sectarian tensions.  

Daily Snapshot

The Gaza Strip’s Hamas Prime minister Ismail Haniyeh (L) and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan salute together the lawmakers of Erdogan’s Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party at the Parliament in Ankara on January 3, 2012. Haniyeh’s visit was a show of solidarity with the Islamic aid group IHH, which had planned to send the Mavi Marmara vessel with another Gaza flotilla last year but then dropped the plan (ADEM ALTAN/AFP/Getty Images). 

Arguments & Analysis

‘Sightings of the Egyptian deep state’ (Issandr El Amrani, Middle East Report online)
“It is worth recalling what the SCAF is, or rather, what it is not: The SCAF is not modeled on the chain of command in the armed forces, and its members have widely different degrees of interaction with, and influence upon, civilian affairs. Only half of the body is composed of military officers who occupy top billets in the army’s organogram, such as commander of the air force or navy. The rest are political officers, mainly lieutenants of Tantawi who held senior positions at the Ministry of Defense (and who often appear on television as spokesmen), or officers drawn from the GIS or the military’s own intelligence service (often a career precursor to a GIS assignment). The method by which the SCAF makes decisions, its frequent slowness in doing so, and the confusion that prevails (or is allowed to linger) over the manner in which it handles security issues, in particular — all these things are a mystery, even by the army’s customary standard of opacity.”

‘Barricaded in Bahrain’ (Joost Hiltermann & Kelly McEvers, New York Review of Books)
“If there is another round of mass protests in the city center (for example, following more deaths as a result of actions by security forces in Shia villages like Aali) and the regime again resorts to violent suppression, it may no longer be able to maintain the precarious status quo. Even with the continued support of its Gulf allies, it will face criticism from much of the international community, who will increasingly regard its rulers as impenitent, incorrigible, and indeed irredeemable. What happens next is unclear, but there can be little doubt that whatever occurs in Bahrain with its political stalemate and sectarian polarization will reverberate in countries with a similarly volatile sectarian mix, such as Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq, as well as in the neighboring Gulf kingdoms.”

‘Some politicians in the first democratic government of Tunisia’ (Ahmed E. Soualaia, Open Democracy)
“Governing a country that has suffered years of mismanagement, corruption, and abuses of power is never easy. Forming a coalition government was the right choice. The three political parties seem to trust one another, and they all stand to lose a great deal if the coalition fails. They have months, not years, to deliver on three critical issues: unemployment, political reform, and economic growth. Even more importantly, they have the responsibility of setting new standards for the rest of the Arab world. The new standards must reflect transparency, compassion, and just use of power that demonstrates respect for human dignity.

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