Egypt's election results expected Saturday Skip to main content

Egypt's election results expected Saturday

Cairo (CNN) -- Results from this week's election in Egypt are expected Saturday, the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces said.

Voter turnout was last reported by the country's election board at 62%, but the board said it would recalculate the figure after reporters raised questions about the number of registered voters used in the calculation, suggesting the true figure was lower.

However, Egyptians were eagerly awaiting the results, not the turnout figures, of voting that took place on Monday and Tuesday in the first election since February's ouster of President Hosni Mubarak. Those results could catapult Islamists into powerful government roles.

Al Noor Salafi, a hardline Muslim group, and the Muslim Brotherhood, a more moderate entity, have each claimed a lead in ballot counting.

If they prevail, their success would be the latest for Islamist-oriented parties in North Africa and the Middle East, where popular discontent and winds of change have swirled this year.

Moderate Islamists recently won elections in Morocco and Tunisia. Turkey's Justice and Development Party, a movement with Islamist roots, easily retained power in elections there last spring. The secular government in predominantly Muslim Turkey is seen as a modern model for democracy in the region.

This week's voting in Egypt marked the first round in a complex, multistep process that will first pick members of the lower house of Parliament.

The elections for the lower house are scheduled to take place in three stages, based on geography. The last of the three stages is set to take place in January. Upper-house elections will run between January and March.

Presidential elections will be held by June, according to the military.

The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in 1928 and has been building a base of support even during the Mubarak era, when it was officially banned but tolerated.

Some observers think the Brotherhood harbors an anti-Western and totalitarian agenda, even though it embraces moderation and democracy in public.

But the movement is entrenched in mainstream Egyptian politics, and its leaders do not appear to be wild-eyed fanatics. Most are highly educated -- doctors, lawyers, engineers, professors and businessmen -- and come from solidly middle-class backgrounds.

Al Noor Salafi is the first Salafist group to register as a political party in Egypt. Salafis are conservative, religious purists and have been accused of stoking sectarian strife against Egypt's Christian minority and of plotting to undermine the country's fledgling democracy.

Military leaders have said they will hand over power to a new government when one is elected, but many Egyptians say they don't trust the council and fear the military will cling to power.

Meanwhile, Kamal Ganzouri, who last week retook the post of prime minister, which he had held from 1996 to 1999, on Thursday announced plans for a new government.

It will include two ministers who were in place before the revolution; eight to 10 ministers from the government of Esam Sharaf, who was prime minister until he and his government resigned two weeks ago; and ministers whom Ganzouri will appoint. "I seek to appoint three youths on the next Cabinet and two women," he said.

An advisory board of 30 political figures has been created that will meet with the Supreme Council at least monthly, a spokesman for the armed forces said. Among them are presidential candidates Amr Moussa and Mohamed Selim El-Awa, the spokesman said.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Chronology of the Press in Burma

1836 – 1846 * During this period the first English-language newspaper was launched under British-ruled Tenasserim, southern  Burma . The first ethnic Karen-language and Burmese-language newspapers also appear in this period.     March 3, 1836 —The first English-language newspaper,  The Maulmain Chronicle , appears in the city of Moulmein in British-ruled Tenasserim. The paper, first published by a British official named E.A. Blundell, continued up until the 1950s. September 1842 —Tavoy’s  Hsa-tu-gaw  (the  Morning Star ), a monthly publication in the Karen-language of  Sgaw ,  is established by the Baptist mission. It is the first ethnic language newspaper. Circulation reached about three hundred until its publication ceased in 1849. January 1843 —The Baptist mission publishes a monthly newspaper, the Christian  Dhamma  Thadinsa  (the  Religious Herald ), in Moulmein. Supposedly the first Burmese-language newspaper, it continued up until the first year of the second Angl

ARSA claims ambush on Myanmar security forces

Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) on Sunday claimed responsibility for an ambush on Myanmar security forces that left several wounded in northern Rakhine state, the first attack in weeks in a region gutted by violence. Rakhine was plunged into turmoil last August, when a series of ARSA raids prompted a military backlash so brutal the UN says it likely amounts to ethnic cleansing of the Muslim Rohingya minority. The army campaign sent some 650,000 Rohingya fleeing for Bangladesh, where refugees have given harrowing accounts of rape, murder and arson at the hands of security forces and vigilantes. Myanmar's military, which tightly controls information about Rakhine, denies any abuses and insists the crackdown was a proportionate response to crush the "terrorist" threat. ARSA have launched few attacks in recent months.  But the army reported that "about ten" Rohingya terrorists ambushed a car with hand-made mines and gunfire on Friday morning

Thai penis whitening trend raises eyebrows

Image copyright LELUXHOSPITAL Image caption Authorities warn the procedure could be quite painful A supposed trend of penis whitening has captivated Thailand in recent days and left it asking if the country's beauty industry is taking things too far. Skin whitening is nothing new in many Asian countries, where darker skin is often associated with outdoor labour, therefore, being poorer. But even so, when a clip of a clinic's latest intriguing procedure was posted online, it quickly went viral. Thailand's health ministry has since issued a warning over the procedure. The BBC Thai service spoke to one patient who had undergone the treatment, who told them: "I wanted to feel more confident in my swimming briefs". The 30-year-old said his first session of several was two months ago, and he had since seen a definite change in the shade. 'What for?' The original Facebook post from the clinic offering the treatment, which uses lasers to break do