Middle East News
By Pakinam Amer
Jun 26, 2007, 22:39 GMT
Cairo - During dinner talks with Saudi's King Abdullah bin Abdel-Aziz in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak reiterated his calls to the Palestinian factions to end their rift, according to overnight editions of Wednesday's newspapers.
Mubarak and Abdullah held dinner talks late Tuesday and were expected to continue discussion in a working breakfast on Wednesday morning.
The agenda of discussions included so far issues like the Iranian nuclear programme and the continuous blood spilling in Iraq, according to state-owned press.
But in the wake of a key summit that brought Palestinian and Israeli leaders to the meeting table, the Palestinian infighting and the Arab- Israeli dossier dominated the discussions.
The two leaders discussed the developments in the Palestinian territories, now split between the two power factions Hamas and Fatah, and the results of Monday's controversial four-way summit that took place in Sharm el-Sheikh.
The summit, also attended by Jordan, was said to have contributed in splitting the camps of the Palestinians by giving unconditional support to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority (PA).
Two weeks earlier and following intense squabbling, Hamas succeeded in a forcible military takeover of the Gaza strip, with members of its militia posing to the cameras as they tramped through government quarters.
Abbas immediately dissolved the Hamas-led cabinet and installed a more moderate emergency government in place.
It was no secret that one of the aims of the summit was to rally round Abbas, according to Egyptian officials. By supporting his legitimacy, the gathering naturally closed ranks against Hamas or at least increased its isolation.
Arab skepticism nevertheless surfaced especially since Israel failed to deliver on issues such as releasing the full funds of Palestinian tax revenue which are estimated at 700 million dollars, in giving Palestinians more freedom of traffic in Israeli areas or lifting military checkpoints across the West Bank.
Many Arab commentators said on Tuesday that the Israeli leadership had succeeded to 'wriggle out' of larger commitments by distracting its counterparts with the decision of freeing 250 Fatah prisoners whose hands are not stained by Israeli blood - a phrase which Israel uses to refer to militants who performed acts of terrorism against the Jewish state.
Singling out Fatah members from an estimated 10,000 Palestinian political prisoners was meant to drive a wedge between Palestinians, said observers, and was highly questioned by Palestinian leaders.
'Two-hundrred-and-fifty are probably less than the number of Palestinians which Israel arrests every month,' Mostafa al-Barghouty, a prominent Palestinian democracy activist, told the BBC Arabic service on Tuesday.
He dismissed the whole matter as a 'joke' adding that 'it is not beyond Israel to release those with minor crimes and misdemeanours.'
According to independent observers in Egypt, the Israeli 'goodwill' gesture and the so-called 'Arab disappointment' that followed are to be discussed by Mubarak and the Saudi king who is scheduled to proceed to Amman on Wednesday for talks with Jordan's King Abdullah II.
Saudi officials floated the possibility of a meeting between the Saudi King and Abbas. Clearly, the King wants to hold talks with all the Arab leaders who attended the summit.
Observers believe that the Saudis are keen -especially in this timing- on revisiting the Arab-hailed, Saudi-backed peace initiative and bring it back on the table of negotiations.
The Saudis, who are major US allies and regional power brokers, are also expected to okay the Arab position concerning the new emergency government.
Egypt and Jordan were quick to huddle around Abbas. But since the summit, Egypt has been toning down its harsh statements regarding Hamas, and has begun to take a more reconciliatory stance -even if it's only in words.
Mubarak surprised many by sending an open invitation to Fatah and Hamas to negotiate, even though Abbas had earlier termed Hamas' revolt 'a bloody coup.'
On Tuesday, Mubarak even told Israeli television's Channel 1 that in his 'personal opinion' Hamas did not intend to take over Gaza, but rather things got 'out of control,' ending in the assumption of power.
In the Egyptian press, he attempted to reassure the Egyptian people - and perhaps his own regime - that Hamas' control of Gaza is not a direct threat to the national security of Egypt, and that its conflicts with Fatah are strictly 'internal matters' to the Palestinians.
Mubarak was indeed cautious, since the Islamist power that is Hamas arguably poses a threat to his own homeland that suffers the influence of the banned Muslim Brotherhood, from which Hamas draws its spiritual guidance.
Mubarak clearly said the events in Gaza have 'regional' implications, and Egypt would not allow radical Islamic groups to stabilize themselves in his country.
Still, he also insisted on unifying the Palestinian front.
Mubarak's call was warmly received by Hamas.
Sacked Palestinian Premier Ismail Haniyeh told reporters on Tuesday that the Egyptian invitation shows 'awareness and consideration of the nature of the political complications on the Palestinian arena.'
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur
© Copyright 2006,2007 by monstersandcritics.com.
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Link: http://news.monstersandcritics.com/middleeast/news/article_1322851.php/ANALYSIS_Saudi_King_Mubarak_insist_on_"Palestinian_unity"
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
NEWS ANALYSIS: Four-way summit serves as a show of support for Abbas (dpa)
Middle East News
By Pakinam Amer
Jun 25, 2007, 20:39 GMT
Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt - A four-way summit at the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh ended without a breakthrough, and according to independent observers, none was intended.
In their eyes, the summit was merely 'an exercise in public relations' aiming at hailing support for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his new emergency government.
Egypt's President Hosny Mubarak called for the summit in the wake of the recent dramatic developments in Gaza, where in five days of savage fighting Hamas gunmen routed their opposite numbers from Abbas' Fatah party.
The summit had been officially aimed at discussing ways of accelerating the peace process in addition to 'giving hope to the Palestinian people in forming an independent Palestinian state,' as summit organizers put it.
But the Israeli leadership did not make any strong commitments to a set of steps that were seen as essential for Israel to boost Abbas and his new cabinet: security cooperation, release of full Palestinian tax revenue funds, ease of transportation of humanitarian aid and the lifting of military checkpoints around the West Bank.
The summit clearly focused on bringing Abbas and Olmert together, in the presence of Arab states. And as much as the Egyptians wanted to seem impartial in the struggle between Hamas and Fatah, their efforts were futile.
It is true that the Egyptian leadership were not quick to denounce Hamas or even use the term 'terrorist' that Israel and other Western states use to describe the militant Islamic group, which has recently taken over the Gaza Strip.
But in a press conference at the end of Monday's summit, presidential spokesman Suleiman Awwad refused to address the question of 'Hamas legitimacy' when cornered by a reporter.
Instead, he said that the summit did not aim at discussing the rift between Hamas and Fatah, 'but is meant to lift the suffering of the Palestinians and put the peace process back on track.'
It was arguably a witty way to avoid commenting on Hamas, but it still does not negate the fact that Egypt's leadership had apparently given a sigh of relief when the Hamas-led government was dissolved and a moderate one was installed in place.
After this decision was made, Egypt was the first to express support by backing Abbas and shifting its diplomatic delegation from Gaza, the hotbed of Hamas, to Ramallah in the West Bank, which is controlled by Fatah and the Palestinian Authority (PA).
Insider sources from both Hamas and the Egyptian government had told Egyptian newspapers that bilateral talks between Egypt's intelligence head Omar Suleiman and Hamas leaders are ongoing in order for a solution to be reached.
But the shadow of an Islamic state right on the borders with Egypt is too worrying, observers say.
'The fear of Hamas is the fear of the Islamic project, the fear of an Islamic state that could lie a few kilometres away from Egypt,' says Essam el-Erian, leading member of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood - the spiritual guide to many Islamic groups around the region, mainly in Egypt and Jordan, and the womb from which Hamas was born.
Egypt has been engaged in its own power struggle with the Brotherhood - a group that gains its legitimacy from its Islamic conservative identity and entrenches itself among Egypt's grassroots through providing services to the people.
Hamas' sweeping majority victory in last year's Palestinian elections both stunned and intimidated regional and international states. In a weaker echo, but still worrying to Egypt's leaders, the Muslim Brotherhood made great strides in recent elections, taking 88 seats in Parliament and forming the strongest opposition force there.
And although the Egyptian government had always considered Hamas a resistance group and a member of the Palestinian political circle, the fear that the group could serve as an inspiration to Islamists in neighbouring countries has always been stalking them, according to several analysts and Egyptian columnists.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur
© Copyright 2006,2007 by monstersandcritics.com.
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Link: http://news.monstersandcritics.com/middleeast/news/article_1322336.php/NEWS_ANALYSIS_Four-way_summit_serves_as_a_show_of_support_for_Abbas
http://www.kuwaittimes.net/read_news.php?newsid=MTM4NzE0NjYwNA==
http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/27Jun2007_news18.php
By Pakinam Amer
Jun 25, 2007, 20:39 GMT
Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt - A four-way summit at the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh ended without a breakthrough, and according to independent observers, none was intended.
In their eyes, the summit was merely 'an exercise in public relations' aiming at hailing support for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his new emergency government.
Egypt's President Hosny Mubarak called for the summit in the wake of the recent dramatic developments in Gaza, where in five days of savage fighting Hamas gunmen routed their opposite numbers from Abbas' Fatah party.
The summit had been officially aimed at discussing ways of accelerating the peace process in addition to 'giving hope to the Palestinian people in forming an independent Palestinian state,' as summit organizers put it.
But the Israeli leadership did not make any strong commitments to a set of steps that were seen as essential for Israel to boost Abbas and his new cabinet: security cooperation, release of full Palestinian tax revenue funds, ease of transportation of humanitarian aid and the lifting of military checkpoints around the West Bank.
The summit clearly focused on bringing Abbas and Olmert together, in the presence of Arab states. And as much as the Egyptians wanted to seem impartial in the struggle between Hamas and Fatah, their efforts were futile.
It is true that the Egyptian leadership were not quick to denounce Hamas or even use the term 'terrorist' that Israel and other Western states use to describe the militant Islamic group, which has recently taken over the Gaza Strip.
But in a press conference at the end of Monday's summit, presidential spokesman Suleiman Awwad refused to address the question of 'Hamas legitimacy' when cornered by a reporter.
Instead, he said that the summit did not aim at discussing the rift between Hamas and Fatah, 'but is meant to lift the suffering of the Palestinians and put the peace process back on track.'
It was arguably a witty way to avoid commenting on Hamas, but it still does not negate the fact that Egypt's leadership had apparently given a sigh of relief when the Hamas-led government was dissolved and a moderate one was installed in place.
After this decision was made, Egypt was the first to express support by backing Abbas and shifting its diplomatic delegation from Gaza, the hotbed of Hamas, to Ramallah in the West Bank, which is controlled by Fatah and the Palestinian Authority (PA).
Insider sources from both Hamas and the Egyptian government had told Egyptian newspapers that bilateral talks between Egypt's intelligence head Omar Suleiman and Hamas leaders are ongoing in order for a solution to be reached.
But the shadow of an Islamic state right on the borders with Egypt is too worrying, observers say.
'The fear of Hamas is the fear of the Islamic project, the fear of an Islamic state that could lie a few kilometres away from Egypt,' says Essam el-Erian, leading member of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood - the spiritual guide to many Islamic groups around the region, mainly in Egypt and Jordan, and the womb from which Hamas was born.
Egypt has been engaged in its own power struggle with the Brotherhood - a group that gains its legitimacy from its Islamic conservative identity and entrenches itself among Egypt's grassroots through providing services to the people.
Hamas' sweeping majority victory in last year's Palestinian elections both stunned and intimidated regional and international states. In a weaker echo, but still worrying to Egypt's leaders, the Muslim Brotherhood made great strides in recent elections, taking 88 seats in Parliament and forming the strongest opposition force there.
And although the Egyptian government had always considered Hamas a resistance group and a member of the Palestinian political circle, the fear that the group could serve as an inspiration to Islamists in neighbouring countries has always been stalking them, according to several analysts and Egyptian columnists.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur
© Copyright 2006,2007 by monstersandcritics.com.
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Link: http://news.monstersandcritics.com/middleeast/news/article_1322336.php/NEWS_ANALYSIS_Four-way_summit_serves_as_a_show_of_support_for_Abbas
http://www.kuwaittimes.net/read_news.php?newsid=MTM4NzE0NjYwNA==
http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/27Jun2007_news18.php
Accusations fly as Egypt's ruling party rivals are crushed (dpa)
Middle East News
By Pakinam Amer
Jun 18, 2007, 17:27 GMT
Cairo - President Hosny Mubarak's ruling party was set to clinch victory in the first and second rounds of Shura Council elections, but the aftermath of a violent and controversial electoral process could spoil the celebrations.
The Shura Council is the upper house of the Egyptian bicameral parliament. Established in 1980, the 264-seat panel takes its name from the Islamic term Shura, meaning consultation, but has little legislative power.
As polling stations closed late Monday rounding off the second round of elections, reports of violence, collective voting, and claims of rigging flew as strongly as they did in the first round held on June 11.
Civil society and human rights groups continued to count the flaws and to press complaints against the use of riot police and national security forces in shadowing NDP rivals, cordoning off ballot stations where Muslim Brotherhood members were running and in threatening voters, according to some of their reports.
As the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) prepared to celebrate, the leader of its biggest threat - the banned Islamic force that is the Muslim Brotherhood - mocked their victory and dismissed the party leaders as 'liars.'
The Muslim Brotherhood claimed that 1,000 of their members, supporters of candidates were rounded up as they posted flyers allegedly carrying religious slogans.
Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated voters reported being beaten and harassed. In areas where Brotherhood candidates were on election lists, voters were told that the elections were cancelled.
It came as no surprise to observers that on the first round of the June 11 elections, the NDP won 69 of the 71 contested seats.
'If the NDP had men, a programme and the ability to challenge the Brothers, it would have never used security police to reach its ends,' said the outspoken Mohammed Mahdi Akef Akef, leader of the Brotherhood, whose group fielded 19 candidates but lost all their seats in the first round.
The runoff elections on Monday took place between independents and NDP candidates for 16 seats.
'(But) these elections do not represent a special importance on our agenda,' the so-called 'supreme guide' of the group said, adding that the Brotherhood has 'more dangerous issues' to attend to and that the elections only helped them establish a presence.
The Brothers are conservative activists entrenched among Egypt's grassroots. Their group has called for the implementation of Islamic law, and takes 'Islam is the Solution' as its political motto. It is said to be the biggest opposition to the NDP.
Concerning the possibility of dissolving the lower-house of parliament - the powerful and legislative People's Assembly - in order to rid of its 88 Brotherhood-affiliated members, as some analysts had suggested after what happened at the Shura elections, Akef said that it was a possibility, but that no scenarios could be predicted under the current regime.
'Anything is possible under this authoritarian regime; a regime that cannot accomplish anything without security police,' he said. 'The security police are ruling the country.'
The Brothers might have left the race empty-handed, all the while decrying what they deemed 'outright injustice.' But they refused to admit defeat.
'The losers are those who violated the rules,' said senior leader and Brotherhood political council member Essam el-Erian. 'Why do you think the regime never disclosed the election figures?'
Apart from the reported violations, clashes marred the elections' scene, especially where ruling party candidates were either running against members of the same party or independents.
A total of 58 campaigners were arrested in Qeft city and Qena province in Upper Egypt, according to security sources.
In west Qena, 25 supporters of independent candidate Maher Moussa were arrested overnight and charged with thuggery and the use of violence during canvassing.
Early Monday, and only a few hours after elections began, supporters of Moussa allegedly picked a physical fight with the supporters of the NDP contestant. At least 19 people were arrested in this incident.
An exchange of fire between two different groups of campaigners belonging to the NDP and left-leaning al-Tagamu party in Qeft, several kilometres away from Qena, also led to the arrest of 14.
In some provinces, especially in Upper Egypt and North Sinai, tensions were high and ethnicity, origins, and tribe membership had the upper hand in controlling people's choices.
A total of 31 candidates were in the contest and awaiting results. So far, the fate of 71 of the 88 contested seats has been decided in the first round of elections.
A contest on one seat in Qasr al-Nil was decided when a contestant left the race for the NDP candidate running in this constituency.
Results of the second round are expected to be announced early Tuesday.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur
© Copyright 2006,2007 by monstersandcritics.com.
This notice cannot be removed without permission.
Link: http://news.monstersandcritics.com/middleeast/news/article_1319234.php/Accusations_fly_as_Egypts_ruling_party_rivals_are_crushed__Roundup_
By Pakinam Amer
Jun 18, 2007, 17:27 GMT
Cairo - President Hosny Mubarak's ruling party was set to clinch victory in the first and second rounds of Shura Council elections, but the aftermath of a violent and controversial electoral process could spoil the celebrations.
The Shura Council is the upper house of the Egyptian bicameral parliament. Established in 1980, the 264-seat panel takes its name from the Islamic term Shura, meaning consultation, but has little legislative power.
As polling stations closed late Monday rounding off the second round of elections, reports of violence, collective voting, and claims of rigging flew as strongly as they did in the first round held on June 11.
Civil society and human rights groups continued to count the flaws and to press complaints against the use of riot police and national security forces in shadowing NDP rivals, cordoning off ballot stations where Muslim Brotherhood members were running and in threatening voters, according to some of their reports.
As the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) prepared to celebrate, the leader of its biggest threat - the banned Islamic force that is the Muslim Brotherhood - mocked their victory and dismissed the party leaders as 'liars.'
The Muslim Brotherhood claimed that 1,000 of their members, supporters of candidates were rounded up as they posted flyers allegedly carrying religious slogans.
Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated voters reported being beaten and harassed. In areas where Brotherhood candidates were on election lists, voters were told that the elections were cancelled.
It came as no surprise to observers that on the first round of the June 11 elections, the NDP won 69 of the 71 contested seats.
'If the NDP had men, a programme and the ability to challenge the Brothers, it would have never used security police to reach its ends,' said the outspoken Mohammed Mahdi Akef Akef, leader of the Brotherhood, whose group fielded 19 candidates but lost all their seats in the first round.
The runoff elections on Monday took place between independents and NDP candidates for 16 seats.
'(But) these elections do not represent a special importance on our agenda,' the so-called 'supreme guide' of the group said, adding that the Brotherhood has 'more dangerous issues' to attend to and that the elections only helped them establish a presence.
The Brothers are conservative activists entrenched among Egypt's grassroots. Their group has called for the implementation of Islamic law, and takes 'Islam is the Solution' as its political motto. It is said to be the biggest opposition to the NDP.
Concerning the possibility of dissolving the lower-house of parliament - the powerful and legislative People's Assembly - in order to rid of its 88 Brotherhood-affiliated members, as some analysts had suggested after what happened at the Shura elections, Akef said that it was a possibility, but that no scenarios could be predicted under the current regime.
'Anything is possible under this authoritarian regime; a regime that cannot accomplish anything without security police,' he said. 'The security police are ruling the country.'
The Brothers might have left the race empty-handed, all the while decrying what they deemed 'outright injustice.' But they refused to admit defeat.
'The losers are those who violated the rules,' said senior leader and Brotherhood political council member Essam el-Erian. 'Why do you think the regime never disclosed the election figures?'
Apart from the reported violations, clashes marred the elections' scene, especially where ruling party candidates were either running against members of the same party or independents.
A total of 58 campaigners were arrested in Qeft city and Qena province in Upper Egypt, according to security sources.
In west Qena, 25 supporters of independent candidate Maher Moussa were arrested overnight and charged with thuggery and the use of violence during canvassing.
Early Monday, and only a few hours after elections began, supporters of Moussa allegedly picked a physical fight with the supporters of the NDP contestant. At least 19 people were arrested in this incident.
An exchange of fire between two different groups of campaigners belonging to the NDP and left-leaning al-Tagamu party in Qeft, several kilometres away from Qena, also led to the arrest of 14.
In some provinces, especially in Upper Egypt and North Sinai, tensions were high and ethnicity, origins, and tribe membership had the upper hand in controlling people's choices.
A total of 31 candidates were in the contest and awaiting results. So far, the fate of 71 of the 88 contested seats has been decided in the first round of elections.
A contest on one seat in Qasr al-Nil was decided when a contestant left the race for the NDP candidate running in this constituency.
Results of the second round are expected to be announced early Tuesday.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur
© Copyright 2006,2007 by monstersandcritics.com.
This notice cannot be removed without permission.
Link: http://news.monstersandcritics.com/middleeast/news/article_1319234.php/Accusations_fly_as_Egypts_ruling_party_rivals_are_crushed__Roundup_
Egypt's ruling party wins Shura elections (dpa)
Middle East News
By Pakinam Amer
Jun 13, 2007, 15:11 GMT
Cairo - As anticipated, Egypt's ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) won a majority of the 88 contested seats in mid-term Shura (parliament's upper house) elections, according to official results issued Wednesday.
The Muslim Brothers, the NDP's biggest threat, emerged empty- handed.
The Higher Commission for Elections announced the winners Wednesday afternoon after more than a 24-hour delay.
A total of 58 seats were filled by NDP candidates, one was won by left-leaning Tagammu and another by an independent. A total of 11 seats in 10 constituencies were pre-decided since their candidates ran uncontested.
Run-offs will be held for 17 seats, said Adel Andrawes, Higher Commission for Elections (HCE) head, on Wednesday.
Allegations of fraud, vote rigging, collective voting and bribery circulated following Monday's election for the Shura Council, the consultative upper house of Egypt's parliament. Its duties are limited to ratifying constitutional amendments, treaties and bill proposals.
The banned Muslim Brotherhood group fielded 19 candidates despite a fierce clampdown on its ranks. But no seats were won by the Brotherhood in this round.
According to Mohammed Fiki, a Brotherhood senior leader and a losing candidate from Giza, the NDP candidate in their constituency got 92,000 votes 'through rigging.'
'Believe me, if a prophet from God descended in this area, he will never reap this amount of votes,' a bitter Fiki told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
The announcement of the election results reflected the chaotic way in which the voting was carried out in many constituencies.
On Tuesday, reporters were left to wait for more than six hours at HCE headquarters as conflicting statements were issued and commission employees started leaving for home.
The official announcement of the results was postponed to Wednesday afternoon because results were still coming in, according to the HCE but observers said that 'conflicts and discrepancies' may have been the real reason for the delay.
For instance, the Brotherhood hotbeds in Giza province must have represented a problem since there was no mention of Giza in preliminary results published by the state-owned newspaper at midnight Tuesday.
On Monday - election day - polling stations were illegally closed in Giza where Muslim Brotherhood candidates were on ballot papers. Heavily armed security officers in black uniforms barred voters from entering the stations, telling them that voting had been cancelled, witnesses said.
Complaints of fraud, rigging, collective voting and bribery flowed into monitoring and human rights offices, some reports said.
In areas where NDP candidates ran, supporters were allowed in without voting cards and were allegedly allowed to vote several times in a row.
The contests turned deadly when a candidate's supporter was shot dead in Sharqiya province and more than six others were reported wounded in a firefight.
Muslim Brotherhood members got the lion's share of harassment with their supporters said to have been manhandled by security police and forcefully banned from voting.
Meanwhile, the HCE said Wednesday that 23 per cent of Egypt's 23 million eligible voters participated in the election. However, the independent monitoring body Shayfeen.com and others said that no more than 5 per cent participated.
HCE chief Andrawes said a 'few individual violations in some polling stations' were reported.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur
© Copyright 2006,2007 by monstersandcritics.com.
This notice cannot be removed without permission.
Link: http://news.monstersandcritics.com/middleeast/news/article_1317087.php/Egypts_ruling_party_wins_Shura_elections__Roundup_
By Pakinam Amer
Jun 13, 2007, 15:11 GMT
Cairo - As anticipated, Egypt's ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) won a majority of the 88 contested seats in mid-term Shura (parliament's upper house) elections, according to official results issued Wednesday.
The Muslim Brothers, the NDP's biggest threat, emerged empty- handed.
The Higher Commission for Elections announced the winners Wednesday afternoon after more than a 24-hour delay.
A total of 58 seats were filled by NDP candidates, one was won by left-leaning Tagammu and another by an independent. A total of 11 seats in 10 constituencies were pre-decided since their candidates ran uncontested.
Run-offs will be held for 17 seats, said Adel Andrawes, Higher Commission for Elections (HCE) head, on Wednesday.
Allegations of fraud, vote rigging, collective voting and bribery circulated following Monday's election for the Shura Council, the consultative upper house of Egypt's parliament. Its duties are limited to ratifying constitutional amendments, treaties and bill proposals.
The banned Muslim Brotherhood group fielded 19 candidates despite a fierce clampdown on its ranks. But no seats were won by the Brotherhood in this round.
According to Mohammed Fiki, a Brotherhood senior leader and a losing candidate from Giza, the NDP candidate in their constituency got 92,000 votes 'through rigging.'
'Believe me, if a prophet from God descended in this area, he will never reap this amount of votes,' a bitter Fiki told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
The announcement of the election results reflected the chaotic way in which the voting was carried out in many constituencies.
On Tuesday, reporters were left to wait for more than six hours at HCE headquarters as conflicting statements were issued and commission employees started leaving for home.
The official announcement of the results was postponed to Wednesday afternoon because results were still coming in, according to the HCE but observers said that 'conflicts and discrepancies' may have been the real reason for the delay.
For instance, the Brotherhood hotbeds in Giza province must have represented a problem since there was no mention of Giza in preliminary results published by the state-owned newspaper at midnight Tuesday.
On Monday - election day - polling stations were illegally closed in Giza where Muslim Brotherhood candidates were on ballot papers. Heavily armed security officers in black uniforms barred voters from entering the stations, telling them that voting had been cancelled, witnesses said.
Complaints of fraud, rigging, collective voting and bribery flowed into monitoring and human rights offices, some reports said.
In areas where NDP candidates ran, supporters were allowed in without voting cards and were allegedly allowed to vote several times in a row.
The contests turned deadly when a candidate's supporter was shot dead in Sharqiya province and more than six others were reported wounded in a firefight.
Muslim Brotherhood members got the lion's share of harassment with their supporters said to have been manhandled by security police and forcefully banned from voting.
Meanwhile, the HCE said Wednesday that 23 per cent of Egypt's 23 million eligible voters participated in the election. However, the independent monitoring body Shayfeen.com and others said that no more than 5 per cent participated.
HCE chief Andrawes said a 'few individual violations in some polling stations' were reported.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur
© Copyright 2006,2007 by monstersandcritics.com.
This notice cannot be removed without permission.
Link: http://news.monstersandcritics.com/middleeast/news/article_1317087.php/Egypts_ruling_party_wins_Shura_elections__Roundup_
Official announcement of election results delayed amid speculations (dpa)
Middle East News
By Pakinam Amer
Jun 12, 2007, 22:59 GMT
Cairo - The official Higher Commissioner for Elections announcement of mid-term election results for Egypt's Shura Council was delayed Tuesday, leaving observers to wonder about the possibility of last minute alterations.
Allegations of fraud, vote rigging, collective voting and bribery circulated following Monday's election for the Shura Council, the consultative upper house of Egypt's parliament. Its duties are limited to ratifying constitutional amendments, treaties and bill proposals.
In some constituencies, winning candidates were informally alerted to results, and preliminary results for at least 60 of 76 contested seats were reported in the first edition of Wednesday's al-Ahram state-owned newspaper that appeared on newsstands at midnight.
The legally banned Muslim Brotherhood group ran 19 candidates despite a fierce clampdown on its ranks.
Sources from the Higher Commissioner for Elections (HCE) said that results were announced unofficially, but that 'a winner is not winner until HEC's head pronounces his name himself.'
Estimates said around 42 ruling National Democratic Party members won, as did one left-leaning Tagammu and one independent. Run-offs will be held for 12 seats, reports had said. Muslim Brotherhood candidates had evidently lost all their races.
Giza, where two Muslim Brotherhood members were contesting elections and where violent incidents occurred during polling and some supporters were barred from entering ballot stations, seems to have represented a problem since there was no mention of Giza in preliminary results published by the state-owned newspaper.
According to HCE sources, the official announcement of the results was postponed to Wednesday afternoon because results were still coming in. The HCE had originally said a press conference would be held Tuesday morning to announce results.
Reporters were left to wait for more than six hours as conflicting statements were issued and commissioner employees started leaving for home.
The delay caused speculation among observers that NDP members could be arguing among themselves, as several NDP candidates had contested the same seat, creating friction within the party.
Complaints of fraud, rigging, collective voting and bribery flowed into monitoring and human rights offices, some reports said.
On Monday, election day, polling stations were illegally closed in Giza where Muslim Brotherhood candidates were on ballots. Heavily armed security officers in black uniforms barred voters from entering the stations, telling them that 'voting has been cancelled,' witnesses said.
In areas where NDP candidates ran, supporters were allowed in without voting cards, and were allegedly allowed to vote several times in a row.
The contests turned deadly when a candidate's supporter was shot dead in Sharqiya province and more than six others were reported wounded in a firefight.
The banned Muslim Brotherhood members got the lion's share of harassment where their supporters were manhandled by security police and forcefully banned from voting. Even before elections began, it seemed like a foregone conclusion that the NDP would win.
Muslim Brotherhood candidates from the second and third constituencies of Imbaba and Giza claimed that three ruling National Democratic Party members had won their contests.
Sayed Saleh, a Brotherhood member from Oseem town in Giza said he is certain that only about 40 people managed to vote for him out of the town's 17,000 registered voters. He said word of mouth held that the NDP candidates got around 5,000-6,000 votes each.
Candidate Mohammed Fiki said people in his town were claiming more than 92,000 people voted for the NDP contestant in their constituency. But he refused to believe it.
'This is crazy talk,' Fiki, a Brotherhood member said. 'During vote counting, it was a big mess. People were allowed in and out without supervision. The whole scene was like a vegetable market. It was just mad.'
'Victory? What victory?' the usually calm Mohammed Habib, deputy to the Brotherhood supreme guide, said. 'Rigging and fraud constitutes 100 per cent of the process.'
'No Egyptian will believe that the Muslim Brothers who garnered 88 seats and 2 million votes in parliamentary elections did not manage to get more than a thousand vote for all their candidates,' said Saad al-Husseiny, a Brotherhood member of parliament.
The Shura Council elections reportedly had a much lower turnout than was officially announced. The independent monitoring body Shayfeen.com and others said no more than 5 per cent of Egypt's 23 million eligible voters participated.
'There was an effective boycott,' said Ghada Shahbanadar, founding member of Shayfeen.com.
Shahbandar said reported violations included a lack of ink to identify those who voted and a lack of privacy during voting.
These elections were the first since the People's Assembly passed key constitutional amendments at the demand by President Hosny Mubarak, including limiting judicial authority over ballot stations. The move was seen as a defeat for Egypt's judges who had decried it.
'There was no judicial supervision whatsoever in these elections,' said judicial expert Nasser Amin.
The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights reported 'thuggery' against members of the press covering the elections.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur
© Copyright 2006,2007 by monstersandcritics.com.
This notice cannot be removed without permission.
Link: http://news.monstersandcritics.com/middleeast/news/article_1316737.php/Official_announcement_of_election_results_delayed_amid_speculations
By Pakinam Amer
Jun 12, 2007, 22:59 GMT
Cairo - The official Higher Commissioner for Elections announcement of mid-term election results for Egypt's Shura Council was delayed Tuesday, leaving observers to wonder about the possibility of last minute alterations.
Allegations of fraud, vote rigging, collective voting and bribery circulated following Monday's election for the Shura Council, the consultative upper house of Egypt's parliament. Its duties are limited to ratifying constitutional amendments, treaties and bill proposals.
In some constituencies, winning candidates were informally alerted to results, and preliminary results for at least 60 of 76 contested seats were reported in the first edition of Wednesday's al-Ahram state-owned newspaper that appeared on newsstands at midnight.
The legally banned Muslim Brotherhood group ran 19 candidates despite a fierce clampdown on its ranks.
Sources from the Higher Commissioner for Elections (HCE) said that results were announced unofficially, but that 'a winner is not winner until HEC's head pronounces his name himself.'
Estimates said around 42 ruling National Democratic Party members won, as did one left-leaning Tagammu and one independent. Run-offs will be held for 12 seats, reports had said. Muslim Brotherhood candidates had evidently lost all their races.
Giza, where two Muslim Brotherhood members were contesting elections and where violent incidents occurred during polling and some supporters were barred from entering ballot stations, seems to have represented a problem since there was no mention of Giza in preliminary results published by the state-owned newspaper.
According to HCE sources, the official announcement of the results was postponed to Wednesday afternoon because results were still coming in. The HCE had originally said a press conference would be held Tuesday morning to announce results.
Reporters were left to wait for more than six hours as conflicting statements were issued and commissioner employees started leaving for home.
The delay caused speculation among observers that NDP members could be arguing among themselves, as several NDP candidates had contested the same seat, creating friction within the party.
Complaints of fraud, rigging, collective voting and bribery flowed into monitoring and human rights offices, some reports said.
On Monday, election day, polling stations were illegally closed in Giza where Muslim Brotherhood candidates were on ballots. Heavily armed security officers in black uniforms barred voters from entering the stations, telling them that 'voting has been cancelled,' witnesses said.
In areas where NDP candidates ran, supporters were allowed in without voting cards, and were allegedly allowed to vote several times in a row.
The contests turned deadly when a candidate's supporter was shot dead in Sharqiya province and more than six others were reported wounded in a firefight.
The banned Muslim Brotherhood members got the lion's share of harassment where their supporters were manhandled by security police and forcefully banned from voting. Even before elections began, it seemed like a foregone conclusion that the NDP would win.
Muslim Brotherhood candidates from the second and third constituencies of Imbaba and Giza claimed that three ruling National Democratic Party members had won their contests.
Sayed Saleh, a Brotherhood member from Oseem town in Giza said he is certain that only about 40 people managed to vote for him out of the town's 17,000 registered voters. He said word of mouth held that the NDP candidates got around 5,000-6,000 votes each.
Candidate Mohammed Fiki said people in his town were claiming more than 92,000 people voted for the NDP contestant in their constituency. But he refused to believe it.
'This is crazy talk,' Fiki, a Brotherhood member said. 'During vote counting, it was a big mess. People were allowed in and out without supervision. The whole scene was like a vegetable market. It was just mad.'
'Victory? What victory?' the usually calm Mohammed Habib, deputy to the Brotherhood supreme guide, said. 'Rigging and fraud constitutes 100 per cent of the process.'
'No Egyptian will believe that the Muslim Brothers who garnered 88 seats and 2 million votes in parliamentary elections did not manage to get more than a thousand vote for all their candidates,' said Saad al-Husseiny, a Brotherhood member of parliament.
The Shura Council elections reportedly had a much lower turnout than was officially announced. The independent monitoring body Shayfeen.com and others said no more than 5 per cent of Egypt's 23 million eligible voters participated.
'There was an effective boycott,' said Ghada Shahbanadar, founding member of Shayfeen.com.
Shahbandar said reported violations included a lack of ink to identify those who voted and a lack of privacy during voting.
These elections were the first since the People's Assembly passed key constitutional amendments at the demand by President Hosny Mubarak, including limiting judicial authority over ballot stations. The move was seen as a defeat for Egypt's judges who had decried it.
'There was no judicial supervision whatsoever in these elections,' said judicial expert Nasser Amin.
The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights reported 'thuggery' against members of the press covering the elections.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur
© Copyright 2006,2007 by monstersandcritics.com.
This notice cannot be removed without permission.
Link: http://news.monstersandcritics.com/middleeast/news/article_1316737.php/Official_announcement_of_election_results_delayed_amid_speculations
In the track of Muslim Brotherhood candidates in Giza (dpa)
Middle East Features
By Pakinam Amer
Jun 11, 2007, 23:36 GMT
Giza, Egypt - On Monday, an Egyptian male voter from Manshiyet al-Qanater in Giza spent most of the day pleading with stiff-mannered security officers sealing off polling stations to let him in to cast his vote for mid-term Shura Council, the upper consultative house of parliament.
On Monday afternoon, many voters interviewed by Deutsche Presse- Agentur dpa in Giza had the same complaint: polling stations were illegally closed.
Heavily armed security officers in black uniforms stopped the man at every gate of the many buildings used by local authorities as makeshift polling stations, each referring him to a different place.
They did not give him any particular reason, he said, just murmured 'these are orders.'
At the end of the hectic journey on the outskirts of Giza, the man in his forties turned to reporters and said, 'It's all because these stations have Muslim Brotherhood candidates.' He refused to disclose his name for fear of police harassment.
The Shura Council is the upper house of Egypt's parliament and its duties are limited to ratifying constitutional amendments, treaties and bill proposals.
The legally banned Brotherhood group is running candidates as independents in two of Giza's three constituencies.
In these two constituencies, which comprise many rural hamlets and villages on the outskirts of Greater Cairo, communities are closely knit, with each group of villages supporting one particular candidate - usually a relative, neighbour or old friend.
Just as voters went round attempting to cast their ballots, so did Sayed Saleh, a Muslim Brotherhood candidate.
He passed heavily fortified ballot stations where truckloads of riot police stood on-call. As police officers suspiciously eyed every passersby, Saleh recounted how he was 'harassed and targeted' by the national security.
Saleh told dpa that his delegates had been shadowed by security forces for many weeks.
He said he woke up in the morning to find his car with two flat tyres and security forces parked outside his house. When he asked why the tyres were flat, they said 'it was a mistake that only two tyres had the air let out of them.'
A total of 160 supporters of Saleh have been arrested during the past three weeks for allegedly using religious slogans.
But Saleh denies using such slogans, showing reporters his campaign posters which read 'Reform is the solution,' a phrase that plays on the original slogan of the Muslim Brotherhood 'Islam is the solution.'
'It is ridiculous the (National Democratic Party) prohibits the Brothers from using religious slogans, when the NDP candidate in this constituency is using Koran verses for his propaganda,' Saleh said.
All around the nearby villages of Oseem, Manshiet al-Qanater and Qerdaset al-Mansouriya minivans with loud speakers could be seen touring streets with campaigners from the ruling NDP singing praises of their candidate.
Saleh's banners were torn down, and NDP candidates lodged official complaints with the local authorities claiming he used religious slogans.
'The Higher Commissioner for Elections had a thick folder full of numerous complaints filed by rival NDP candidates,' he said.
Mariam al-Sayed, Saleh's daughter, said their house was under surveillance for several days. Her father was reportedly followed everywhere and people in the village took to jokingly calling him 'the national security man.'
'We could see the national security spies sitting in the shop facing our house, eyeing everyone coming in or out of our house,' his wife, Iman Ismail, said.
Ihab Abul-Fotouh, a student supporter of Saleh, said he and his brother were rounded-up from their home, their computer was confiscated, and they were detained for three days.
'We were charged with posting flyers carrying religious slogans. We had no flyers. We were arrested from our own homes,' Abul-Fotouh said.
Saleh's experience is not unique. Several kilometres away in Abu al-Noumros, a rural area in Giza's third constituency, another Brotherhood-affiliated candidate, Mohammed Fiki, complained that NDP supporters rigged the vote.
'They had the audacity of rigging the balloting register registering ineligible voters and making them vote,' Fiki alleged. 'I personally confiscated 100 pages of rigged lists filled out by the station's employees.'
'When my supporters reached the poling station, police sent them back, telling them that the elections were cancelled,' he added.
But cordoning people off was not the only problem that voters faced - Muslim Brotherhood or not. Fawziya Mohammed, a female registered voter, said many voters could not find their names on the register, and she saw some people being sent away.
Outside a polling station in the village of Bortos, some people were allowed to vote using their national identification cards or their NDP membership cards. The same people were reportedly allowed to vote more than once.
'I voted several times today. Everyone did,' said Mohammed, a young man in his early twenties standing outside a polling station.
Mohammed, who did not disclose his last name, does not own a voting card.
'Rigging is taking place in all the stations,' said Mohammed Abdel-Hakim, a campaigner for independent candidate Abdel-Hakim al- Nimr.
Another campaigner, Mohammed al-Nimr, claimed NDP candidates were buying votes.
'What we are witnessing today is the result of a security regime using its heavy stick everywhere,' said Fiki, who seemed to have little hope that Muslim Brotherhood candidates will make any significant gains.
Preliminary results of the first round of the elections are expected late Tuesday. A runoff round will be held on June 18, and arguably only then will the brotherhood be able to draw lessons from this experiment in political participation.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur
© Copyright 2006,2007 by monstersandcritics.com.
This notice cannot be removed without permission.
Link: http://news.monstersandcritics.com/middleeast/features/printer_1316305.php
By Pakinam Amer
Jun 11, 2007, 23:36 GMT
Giza, Egypt - On Monday, an Egyptian male voter from Manshiyet al-Qanater in Giza spent most of the day pleading with stiff-mannered security officers sealing off polling stations to let him in to cast his vote for mid-term Shura Council, the upper consultative house of parliament.
On Monday afternoon, many voters interviewed by Deutsche Presse- Agentur dpa in Giza had the same complaint: polling stations were illegally closed.
Heavily armed security officers in black uniforms stopped the man at every gate of the many buildings used by local authorities as makeshift polling stations, each referring him to a different place.
They did not give him any particular reason, he said, just murmured 'these are orders.'
At the end of the hectic journey on the outskirts of Giza, the man in his forties turned to reporters and said, 'It's all because these stations have Muslim Brotherhood candidates.' He refused to disclose his name for fear of police harassment.
The Shura Council is the upper house of Egypt's parliament and its duties are limited to ratifying constitutional amendments, treaties and bill proposals.
The legally banned Brotherhood group is running candidates as independents in two of Giza's three constituencies.
In these two constituencies, which comprise many rural hamlets and villages on the outskirts of Greater Cairo, communities are closely knit, with each group of villages supporting one particular candidate - usually a relative, neighbour or old friend.
Just as voters went round attempting to cast their ballots, so did Sayed Saleh, a Muslim Brotherhood candidate.
He passed heavily fortified ballot stations where truckloads of riot police stood on-call. As police officers suspiciously eyed every passersby, Saleh recounted how he was 'harassed and targeted' by the national security.
Saleh told dpa that his delegates had been shadowed by security forces for many weeks.
He said he woke up in the morning to find his car with two flat tyres and security forces parked outside his house. When he asked why the tyres were flat, they said 'it was a mistake that only two tyres had the air let out of them.'
A total of 160 supporters of Saleh have been arrested during the past three weeks for allegedly using religious slogans.
But Saleh denies using such slogans, showing reporters his campaign posters which read 'Reform is the solution,' a phrase that plays on the original slogan of the Muslim Brotherhood 'Islam is the solution.'
'It is ridiculous the (National Democratic Party) prohibits the Brothers from using religious slogans, when the NDP candidate in this constituency is using Koran verses for his propaganda,' Saleh said.
All around the nearby villages of Oseem, Manshiet al-Qanater and Qerdaset al-Mansouriya minivans with loud speakers could be seen touring streets with campaigners from the ruling NDP singing praises of their candidate.
Saleh's banners were torn down, and NDP candidates lodged official complaints with the local authorities claiming he used religious slogans.
'The Higher Commissioner for Elections had a thick folder full of numerous complaints filed by rival NDP candidates,' he said.
Mariam al-Sayed, Saleh's daughter, said their house was under surveillance for several days. Her father was reportedly followed everywhere and people in the village took to jokingly calling him 'the national security man.'
'We could see the national security spies sitting in the shop facing our house, eyeing everyone coming in or out of our house,' his wife, Iman Ismail, said.
Ihab Abul-Fotouh, a student supporter of Saleh, said he and his brother were rounded-up from their home, their computer was confiscated, and they were detained for three days.
'We were charged with posting flyers carrying religious slogans. We had no flyers. We were arrested from our own homes,' Abul-Fotouh said.
Saleh's experience is not unique. Several kilometres away in Abu al-Noumros, a rural area in Giza's third constituency, another Brotherhood-affiliated candidate, Mohammed Fiki, complained that NDP supporters rigged the vote.
'They had the audacity of rigging the balloting register registering ineligible voters and making them vote,' Fiki alleged. 'I personally confiscated 100 pages of rigged lists filled out by the station's employees.'
'When my supporters reached the poling station, police sent them back, telling them that the elections were cancelled,' he added.
But cordoning people off was not the only problem that voters faced - Muslim Brotherhood or not. Fawziya Mohammed, a female registered voter, said many voters could not find their names on the register, and she saw some people being sent away.
Outside a polling station in the village of Bortos, some people were allowed to vote using their national identification cards or their NDP membership cards. The same people were reportedly allowed to vote more than once.
'I voted several times today. Everyone did,' said Mohammed, a young man in his early twenties standing outside a polling station.
Mohammed, who did not disclose his last name, does not own a voting card.
'Rigging is taking place in all the stations,' said Mohammed Abdel-Hakim, a campaigner for independent candidate Abdel-Hakim al- Nimr.
Another campaigner, Mohammed al-Nimr, claimed NDP candidates were buying votes.
'What we are witnessing today is the result of a security regime using its heavy stick everywhere,' said Fiki, who seemed to have little hope that Muslim Brotherhood candidates will make any significant gains.
Preliminary results of the first round of the elections are expected late Tuesday. A runoff round will be held on June 18, and arguably only then will the brotherhood be able to draw lessons from this experiment in political participation.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur
© Copyright 2006,2007 by monstersandcritics.com.
This notice cannot be removed without permission.
Link: http://news.monstersandcritics.com/middleeast/features/printer_1316305.php
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Nubians decry discrimination on eve of elections (dpa)
Middle East Features
By Pakinam Amer
Jun 10, 2007, 18:09 GMT
Aswan, Egypt - Taking shelter from the blistering Aswan heat, community leaders of the so-called New Nubia huddle under the shade of a tree and recount how they were forced to leave their villages on the banks of the Nile.
'The day we left resembled doomsday,' says Nour el-Din Hassan as he sits garbed in a white gown - a definitive mark of Nubian culture - sipping a cold Hibiscus drink.
Hassan is a businessman in his late fifties, who has witnessed the 43-year-old relocation. Aswan is the site of the 3.6-kilometre High Dam, the construction of which caused the inundation of 44 Nubian villages where Hassan, his family members and members of his tribe grew up.
'I remember the date very well when we were made to leave,' says Hassan. 'It was a stormy day; dust filled the air, winds blew.'
Hassan remains nostalgic until this very day. He says they were never sufficiently compensated for their 'paradise lost,' and this makes him and his people feel 'abandoned by central authorities.'
Preparations for the Shura Council elections seem to have opened some old wounds.
As the midterm elections approach, Nubians based in and around Aswan hope representatives of the central authority in Aswam will be more receptive to their demands: new homes, new land and a more equal share in the political power game.
The Shura Council is the upper house of Egypt's parliament and its duties are limited to ratifying constitutional amendments, treaties and bill proposals. It is strictly consultative on other matters and has arguably little influence on politics.
Nevertheless, membership in the Shura council is sought for prestige, parliamentary immunity and the powers that such a post gives its holder on the local level.
It is not surprising that the people of Aswan choose to huddle around their candidates - usually tribal and community leaders - who are supposed to act as their ambassadors and provide services.
The Nubians of Nasr al-Nuba, a town 85 kilometres away from the Old Nuba from which they were uprooted, said that they were denied the privilege of serving their people through the Shura Council.
According to their elders, the 'real Nubians,' as they choose to call themselves, are usually ignored and given false promises by Aswan's local administration.
Despite being given new homes in Nasr al-Nuba after their displacement, Nubians complain that the small one-storey houses are nothing like their old mansions surrounded by acres of cultivated land.
'It was a paradise where we lived,' says Hassan, supported by the nods of his tribesman, who are leaders in their own right.
Ismail Ahmed Gamal, the mayor of Nasr al-Nuba, pointed to the bare hills in the distance telling a reporter how they were uprooted from the banks of the Nile and 'thrown into this blazing desert land.'
Around Lake Nasser, which now covers old Nubia, are sites of construction projects, which include the Toshka (the New Valley Project) with irrigation canals to carry water from Lake Nasser into Egypt's western desert. Some of the Nubian families who were not compensated more than 40 years ago were promised lodgings around the banks of the lake.
According to them, 5,000 families have not been given homes yet. In addition, the Nubians see the new haven, the environment of which resembles their old 'paradise lost.'
'It's only fair that inhabitants who originally belong to this land be returned back,' adds Gamal referring to the area around Lake Nasser.
'We have been promised this by the president of Egypt,' the mayor of Nasr al-Nuba said. But the governor, they claimed, refuses to relocate them to the place they call 'home' despite the president's promise.
They say they have no representatives in Monday's Shura Council elections. 'We need one of us, someone who has seen it all and suffered as we did to defend our rights,' adds the mayor who is also a member of the left-leaning Tagammu opposition party.
The lack of representation of Nubians is what reportedly lead Abdel-Karim Karar, a leading member of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) in the Komb Ombo district of Aswan, to quit the party.
Nasr al-Nuba has 60,000 registered voters and according to Karar, the NDP should have fielded a candidate representing this community, but it refused to.
He adds that the Nubians called on the governor to identify Nasr al-Nuba as a separate constituency, but this demand has also been refused.
'Logic says that grand tribes and ethnicities are what should be represented. The Nubians are only 10 per cent (of the population),' said Aswan's governor Samir Youssef.
The governor shrugged off the Nubian troubles as 'the work of minor elements' entrenched among the Nubian communities - people that are financed by Western countries which aim at destabilizing Egypt's societies, he said.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur
© Copyright 2006,2007 by monstersandcritics.com.
This notice cannot be removed without permission.
Link: http://news.monstersandcritics.com/middleeast/features/article_1315844.php/Nubians_decry_discrimination_on_eve_of_elections
By Pakinam Amer
Jun 10, 2007, 18:09 GMT
Aswan, Egypt - Taking shelter from the blistering Aswan heat, community leaders of the so-called New Nubia huddle under the shade of a tree and recount how they were forced to leave their villages on the banks of the Nile.
'The day we left resembled doomsday,' says Nour el-Din Hassan as he sits garbed in a white gown - a definitive mark of Nubian culture - sipping a cold Hibiscus drink.
Hassan is a businessman in his late fifties, who has witnessed the 43-year-old relocation. Aswan is the site of the 3.6-kilometre High Dam, the construction of which caused the inundation of 44 Nubian villages where Hassan, his family members and members of his tribe grew up.
'I remember the date very well when we were made to leave,' says Hassan. 'It was a stormy day; dust filled the air, winds blew.'
Hassan remains nostalgic until this very day. He says they were never sufficiently compensated for their 'paradise lost,' and this makes him and his people feel 'abandoned by central authorities.'
Preparations for the Shura Council elections seem to have opened some old wounds.
As the midterm elections approach, Nubians based in and around Aswan hope representatives of the central authority in Aswam will be more receptive to their demands: new homes, new land and a more equal share in the political power game.
The Shura Council is the upper house of Egypt's parliament and its duties are limited to ratifying constitutional amendments, treaties and bill proposals. It is strictly consultative on other matters and has arguably little influence on politics.
Nevertheless, membership in the Shura council is sought for prestige, parliamentary immunity and the powers that such a post gives its holder on the local level.
It is not surprising that the people of Aswan choose to huddle around their candidates - usually tribal and community leaders - who are supposed to act as their ambassadors and provide services.
The Nubians of Nasr al-Nuba, a town 85 kilometres away from the Old Nuba from which they were uprooted, said that they were denied the privilege of serving their people through the Shura Council.
According to their elders, the 'real Nubians,' as they choose to call themselves, are usually ignored and given false promises by Aswan's local administration.
Despite being given new homes in Nasr al-Nuba after their displacement, Nubians complain that the small one-storey houses are nothing like their old mansions surrounded by acres of cultivated land.
'It was a paradise where we lived,' says Hassan, supported by the nods of his tribesman, who are leaders in their own right.
Ismail Ahmed Gamal, the mayor of Nasr al-Nuba, pointed to the bare hills in the distance telling a reporter how they were uprooted from the banks of the Nile and 'thrown into this blazing desert land.'
Around Lake Nasser, which now covers old Nubia, are sites of construction projects, which include the Toshka (the New Valley Project) with irrigation canals to carry water from Lake Nasser into Egypt's western desert. Some of the Nubian families who were not compensated more than 40 years ago were promised lodgings around the banks of the lake.
According to them, 5,000 families have not been given homes yet. In addition, the Nubians see the new haven, the environment of which resembles their old 'paradise lost.'
'It's only fair that inhabitants who originally belong to this land be returned back,' adds Gamal referring to the area around Lake Nasser.
'We have been promised this by the president of Egypt,' the mayor of Nasr al-Nuba said. But the governor, they claimed, refuses to relocate them to the place they call 'home' despite the president's promise.
They say they have no representatives in Monday's Shura Council elections. 'We need one of us, someone who has seen it all and suffered as we did to defend our rights,' adds the mayor who is also a member of the left-leaning Tagammu opposition party.
The lack of representation of Nubians is what reportedly lead Abdel-Karim Karar, a leading member of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) in the Komb Ombo district of Aswan, to quit the party.
Nasr al-Nuba has 60,000 registered voters and according to Karar, the NDP should have fielded a candidate representing this community, but it refused to.
He adds that the Nubians called on the governor to identify Nasr al-Nuba as a separate constituency, but this demand has also been refused.
'Logic says that grand tribes and ethnicities are what should be represented. The Nubians are only 10 per cent (of the population),' said Aswan's governor Samir Youssef.
The governor shrugged off the Nubian troubles as 'the work of minor elements' entrenched among the Nubian communities - people that are financed by Western countries which aim at destabilizing Egypt's societies, he said.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur
© Copyright 2006,2007 by monstersandcritics.com.
This notice cannot be removed without permission.
Link: http://news.monstersandcritics.com/middleeast/features/article_1315844.php/Nubians_decry_discrimination_on_eve_of_elections
Kinship and ethnicity influence voters' in upper Egypt (dpa)
Middle East Features
By Pakinam Amer
Jun 9, 2007, 21:26 GMT
Aswan, Egypt - When asked which candidate he supported, a young voter from Aswan named Mohammed Atta smiled, then simply said: 'I can't say. It's too embarrassing.'
Atta's manner embodies the general mood in Aswan ahead of Monday's Shura council midterm elections. There, several candidates of the same party are also tribal leaders tribes in the society with a population of around 1.1 million, according to municipal statistics.
Atta later told a reporter that all his acquaintances knew that he would vote for his tribe, but he does not like making his choice known.
An Aswan-based senior member of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) said people are both 'confused and uncomfortable' with the idea of more than one candidate running for the same seat.
'They're dividing the voters,' added the high-profile member who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Aswan lies on the east bank of the Nile and is both a strong industrial city and a tourist attraction. It harbours the 3.6- kilometre High Dam, Egypt's key power generator and Lake Nasser, reputed to be the world's largest artificial lake.
Aswan's busy NDP headquarters has posters of six candidates from the same party who are running for the Cairo-based consultative body with 264 seats. According to the NDP's general secretary in Aswan, Khalaf Youssef Saed, the party has fielded 'its strongest candidates' for this election.
He insisted that party followers were happy with what he termed 'a new experiment' and dismissed allegations of confusion among voters saying people confused themselves by voting for a distant relative rather than for the best candidate.
The famous tribes and ethnicities of Aswan, near the Sudanese border, include the Jaafara tribe, who claim to be descended from Jaafar al-Sadek and trace their heritage back to Imam Hussein, the grandson of Prophet Mohammed, founder of Islam.
Another tribe called the Ansar claim they are descendants of the People of the Medina among whom Prophet Mohammed found solace after he was driven out of Mecca hundreds of years ago. Abbadis and Abbasids are two of the large tribes represented in these elections.
According to voters, supporting kin is a must even if their 'relative is a mere farmer and his contestant is a scientist,' in the words of a registered voter.
The elections could yet turn nasty. According to Diyab Abudllah, a candidate calling himself Hajj, flyers circulated in the city are spreading rumours about him.
'I hate prejudice and intolerance. And for me the whole thing is not unlike a football match. Nevertheless, some other candidates chose to play the game differently and spread rumours about me,' said Abdullah.
He expressed concern about multiple-candidacies. The NDP does not support their candidates now because they cannot back one and not the other.
'People are perplexed,' he added. 'There is a lot of ignorance. So in the end, people may decide to vote for both NDP contestants thinking that they're supporting the party this way without knowing that the candidates are actually rivals.'
'It is the absolute democracy,' said Aswan's governor Samir Youssef in reference to NDP's decision to field more than one candidate.
'There is more than one star in the constituencies and everyone of these feels he deserves to run for candidacy. The NDP is giving them all their chances.'
Aswan has two main constituencies. One of them encompasses the upper-Egyptian city of Aswan and the northern township of Daraw where 11 candidates including two from NDP, are contesting two seats.
In the second constituency, 19 candidates have registered their candidates from the northern towns of Edfo and Komb Ombo - which are both under the governance of the Aswan province.
The NDP had fielded four candidates for two seats in the second constituency. Despite NDP members' concerns that the votes will be divided owing to multiple candidacies from the ruling party, others insist that the NDP have no 'big competitors.'
Many independent candidates were affiliated with NDP, but left when the party did not enlist them for the Shura elections. According to NDP leaders, these independents could be won back if they score a victory in the elections.
But Egypt's foremost opposition the Muslim Brotherhood - a banned but popular religious group - is not strong in Aswan. They are not fielding a candidate in upper Egypt, an announcement said.
More than 34 million registered voters are expected to cast their votes in the Shura elections, which begin on Monday. The candidates are competing for 88 seats in 57 constituencies across 24 Egyptian provinces - 11 seats have already been granted to candidates running alone in their constituencies.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur
© Copyright 2006,2007 by monstersandcritics.com.
This notice cannot be removed without permission.
Link: http://news.monstersandcritics.com/middleeast/features/article_1315619.php/Kinship_and_ethnicity_influence_voters_in_upper_Egypt
By Pakinam Amer
Jun 9, 2007, 21:26 GMT
Aswan, Egypt - When asked which candidate he supported, a young voter from Aswan named Mohammed Atta smiled, then simply said: 'I can't say. It's too embarrassing.'
Atta's manner embodies the general mood in Aswan ahead of Monday's Shura council midterm elections. There, several candidates of the same party are also tribal leaders tribes in the society with a population of around 1.1 million, according to municipal statistics.
Atta later told a reporter that all his acquaintances knew that he would vote for his tribe, but he does not like making his choice known.
An Aswan-based senior member of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) said people are both 'confused and uncomfortable' with the idea of more than one candidate running for the same seat.
'They're dividing the voters,' added the high-profile member who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Aswan lies on the east bank of the Nile and is both a strong industrial city and a tourist attraction. It harbours the 3.6- kilometre High Dam, Egypt's key power generator and Lake Nasser, reputed to be the world's largest artificial lake.
Aswan's busy NDP headquarters has posters of six candidates from the same party who are running for the Cairo-based consultative body with 264 seats. According to the NDP's general secretary in Aswan, Khalaf Youssef Saed, the party has fielded 'its strongest candidates' for this election.
He insisted that party followers were happy with what he termed 'a new experiment' and dismissed allegations of confusion among voters saying people confused themselves by voting for a distant relative rather than for the best candidate.
The famous tribes and ethnicities of Aswan, near the Sudanese border, include the Jaafara tribe, who claim to be descended from Jaafar al-Sadek and trace their heritage back to Imam Hussein, the grandson of Prophet Mohammed, founder of Islam.
Another tribe called the Ansar claim they are descendants of the People of the Medina among whom Prophet Mohammed found solace after he was driven out of Mecca hundreds of years ago. Abbadis and Abbasids are two of the large tribes represented in these elections.
According to voters, supporting kin is a must even if their 'relative is a mere farmer and his contestant is a scientist,' in the words of a registered voter.
The elections could yet turn nasty. According to Diyab Abudllah, a candidate calling himself Hajj, flyers circulated in the city are spreading rumours about him.
'I hate prejudice and intolerance. And for me the whole thing is not unlike a football match. Nevertheless, some other candidates chose to play the game differently and spread rumours about me,' said Abdullah.
He expressed concern about multiple-candidacies. The NDP does not support their candidates now because they cannot back one and not the other.
'People are perplexed,' he added. 'There is a lot of ignorance. So in the end, people may decide to vote for both NDP contestants thinking that they're supporting the party this way without knowing that the candidates are actually rivals.'
'It is the absolute democracy,' said Aswan's governor Samir Youssef in reference to NDP's decision to field more than one candidate.
'There is more than one star in the constituencies and everyone of these feels he deserves to run for candidacy. The NDP is giving them all their chances.'
Aswan has two main constituencies. One of them encompasses the upper-Egyptian city of Aswan and the northern township of Daraw where 11 candidates including two from NDP, are contesting two seats.
In the second constituency, 19 candidates have registered their candidates from the northern towns of Edfo and Komb Ombo - which are both under the governance of the Aswan province.
The NDP had fielded four candidates for two seats in the second constituency. Despite NDP members' concerns that the votes will be divided owing to multiple candidacies from the ruling party, others insist that the NDP have no 'big competitors.'
Many independent candidates were affiliated with NDP, but left when the party did not enlist them for the Shura elections. According to NDP leaders, these independents could be won back if they score a victory in the elections.
But Egypt's foremost opposition the Muslim Brotherhood - a banned but popular religious group - is not strong in Aswan. They are not fielding a candidate in upper Egypt, an announcement said.
More than 34 million registered voters are expected to cast their votes in the Shura elections, which begin on Monday. The candidates are competing for 88 seats in 57 constituencies across 24 Egyptian provinces - 11 seats have already been granted to candidates running alone in their constituencies.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur
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