PoliticsEgypt: Parliamentary Vote: Stage 3 of the historic voting will include Egypt's rural areas and some urban centres in the midst of these

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"The Corner" feature of National Review (December 15, 2k11)
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Hat Tip to Dr. Paul Marshall; thanks to author Samuel Tadros
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The Egyptian Elections:  What to Expect in Round 2 December 13, 2011 4:03 P.M. By Samuel Tadros On Wednesday and Thursday, Egyptians will head to the polls for the second stage of the country’s lengthy parliamentary elections. Unlike the first stage, which included Cairo and Alexandria, this stage will take place mostly in the countryside. So far the Islamists have won 69 percent of the seats in the first stage. This result will be repeated in the second stage with an increased percentage. The Islamist tsunami will only gain strength as it moves into more friendly districts. In the second stage, nine Egyptian governates will be voting to elect 180 members of parliament. Those governates will include for the first time the heart of the Nile Delta, Monofia, Sharkia, and Behira. They will also include Giza, with its urban and rural districts, the Suez Canal governates Ismailia and Suez, as well as the Bani Suif and the southern governates Sohag and Aswan. Providing more proof of how chaotic the electoral process has been, the election commission has indicated today that it will implement a court order stopping party-list elections in Behira’s 2nd, Sohag’s 2nd, and Monofia’s 1st districts, representing 24 seats. In those areas voters will only vote to fill individual seats. Party-list elections in those areas will be take place simultaneously with the runoff elections for the individual seats next week. In preparation for the second stage, and after the shock of their terrible performance, the non-Islamist parties have attempted to offer a unified front to counter the Islamist onslaught. The main non-Islamist parties have agreed on a list of candidates to back on the individual seats, while each maintain their separate lists on the party list seats. This will be the test of their combined power, though it is quite doubtful that it will be of any actual value. Please read the complete article ...

PoliticsEgypt: 2nd place party: Even more Shariah-supremecist than Muslim Brotherhood, the hardline Salafists of the al-Nour Party gain 25% of votes

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Christian Post (December7,2k11)
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Salafi party plans to bar Christians 

from executive posts in Egypt

By Sami K. Martin | Christian Post Contributor

The Salafi al-Nour party may have come in second during the recent Egyptian elections, but they feel as though they have already won and are planning big changes for the country.

The Muslim Brotherhood actually won this round of elections, but the Nour party took 25 percent of the votes, giving them a noticeable presence in the new government. They intend on using any and all influence to bring the country back to its religious roots.

One of the biggest changes will be the implementation of Shariah law, which many commentators say would set the country’s progress toward democracy backwards.

Spokesman Yousseri Hamed told reporters: “The mechanism of democracy suits me, like elections and ballot boxes to choose my representative. The idea that the people make their own laws and decide what is prohibited and what is permitted, we reject that.”

Salafists rigorously adhere to the Quran and push for an extreme version of Shariah law not often seen in most other Islamic groups. According to reports: “Salafis follow a puritan school of Islam that was revived in Egyptin the 1970s by university students.”

It emerged in the political scene not long after President Mubarak was overthrown. Many political analysts fear that democracy may not proceed if Islamic parties win power. Others felt the elections would be overwhelming and Egyptians would vote for the party most known and familiar.

PoliticsEgypt: Parliamentary Elections: Polls now closed, Christians fear Freedom and Justice party Muslim-Brotherhood-dominated Shariahist5s

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Christian Science Monitor (November29,2k11)
—Reposted by Politicarp
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Today Egyptians are wrapping up the first of several rounds of voting for the first Egyptian parliament since the ousting of former President Hosni Mubarak. Two-thirds of the parliamentary seats will be chosen via a proportional list system, and the other third will be chosen as individual candidates.
Every voter will choose two candidates from their governorate and one local list of candidates, often including candidates from multiple parties. The more votes a list gets, the more candidates on its list will be in parliament.

Below are the options facing Egyptians as they go to the polls. 

- Ariel Zirulnick, Staff writer

0 and 0

The Democratic Alliance for Egypt 

The Democratic Alliance for Egypt, which counts among its members the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), was the first electoral coalition to emerge after Egypt’s uprising. The alliance extended an offer of membership to every party in Egypt, and began with 28 parties. Its membership surged to 40 at one point, but has since dropped to 11 [parties] and is now dominated by the FJP.

According to Egypt Elections Watch – produced by online magazines Jadaliyya and Ahram Online with the Arab studies programs at Georgetown University and George Mason University – the FJP tops the Alliance’s electoral lists. 

The FJP is fielding more than 500 candidates in the parliamentary elections, compared with only 16 from Al Karama Party and 15 from Ghad Al-Thawra. These are the only significant parties other than FJP that are left in the alliance, according to Egypt Elections Watch. 

Some prominent parties who were initially members left the coalition:

• Al-Wafd Party
 – this liberal party left the coalition in October, saying that there wasn’t enough room for both parties on the Alliance’s electoral lists; the incompatibility between the FJP’s Islamist agenda and Al-Wafd’s secular emphasis created problems.

• Al-Nour Party

– this Salafist party said it left because it was being “marginalized” by the liberal parties in the Alliance’s decisionmaking process; some observers say it actually left because the Brotherhood was crowding out its candidates at the top of the lists.  

– this Salafist party said it left because it was being “marginalized” by the liberal parties in the Alliance’s decisionmaking process; some observers say it actually left because the Brotherhood was crowding out its candidates at the top of the lists. 

"The Copts should blend into Egyptian society and there should not be a religious symbol (in politics) that would influence people's decision," said Emad Abdel Ghafour, head of the ultra-conservative Islamist Salafi Al-Nour party." -- See Reuters article below "Egypt’s Christians seek to be heard in election where Islamists favoured".

• Democratic Front Party
– said it left because a partnership with Islamist groups violated its principles

• Al-Tagammu Party
– objected to Islamist members’ calls for the establishment of an Islamic state and sharia

• Egypt vote is on, despite deadly protests. How will the Muslim Brotherhood do?
• As Egypt votes, a surprising calm. But real test still to come
• View all lists

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Reuters Blog (November 29, 2k11)
— Reposted here by Politicarp

Egypt’s Christians seek to be heard

in election where Islamists favoured

NOV 29, 2011 13:03 EST

 
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EGYPT MUSLIM ISLAMIST COPTIC CHRISTIAN ELECTION INTERFAITH TENSION ATTACKS

(A Coptic priest queues to vote outside a polling station in the parliamentary election in Shubra neighbourhood, Cairo November 28, 2011. REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic)

Coptic Christians are trying to make their voices heard in Muslim-majority Egypt’s parliamentary election, fearing Islamists could sweep in and deepen their sense of marginalisation.  Egypt’s Christians are reeling from a spate of attacks on churches since Hosni Mubarak was ousted in February that they blame on Islamists.

An October protest over one such attack led to clashes with military police in which 25 [Coptic Christian] people were killed. This has deepened a feeling of isolation in a community that makes up about a tenth of a population of 80 million and whose roots in Egypt pre-date the emergence of Islam.

Fady Badie, like many Egyptians, voted for the first time in this week’s parliamentary vote, seen as meaningful unlike the rigged polls of Mubarak’s time. But one of [Fady Baidi]s main concerns was to dilute the Islamist vote and voice his other worries.

“For sure Copts are afraid of this prospect (of Islamists in parliament). We have problems with the military council (of rulers), problems with Islamists and, now this year, we have found we even have problems with the general public,” he said, speaking during voting in the Cairo suburb of Maadi. “If the democratic process is challenged and what happened in Iran happens in Egypt, then I will start really worrying,” he said, adding that he was choosing the Egyptian Bloc alliance, which includes a party co-founded by a Christian billionaire [he's a telecom/media executive-owner].

The alliance that includes the Free Egyptians party of prominent Christian telecoms tycoon Naguib Sawiris is a popular choice among Christians and some liberal-leaning Muslims who are equally concerned by the rise of Islamists.

But the Bloc has drawn unwelcome attention. Supporters blame Islamists for what they say is a smear campaign to deter any Muslim voters from choosing it because of images posted on Facebook saying it is: “The voice for the Egyptian church.”

It reflects growing sectarian tensions in a nation where rights groups say flare-ups between Muslim and Christian communities that were increasingly common before Mubarak’s ouster have now erupted into even more deadly violence.

Read the full story by Maha El Dahan and Marwa Awad here.