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Egypt anti-government protests grow

Oh how very convincing.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/09/egyptian-uprising-new-reality-suleiman

"The clock cannot be turned back and the revolution laid down a new reality that cannot be ignored," Suleiman said. "And no one, no matter who he is, will be able to reinvent a regime that fell, folded and was rejected and revolted against."
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"Those who think that my candidacy for president means reinventing the former regime must realise that being the head of the General Intelligence Agency or vice-president for a few days does not mean that I was part of an institution against which people revolted," Suleiman said.
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Been hearing suggestions that Suleiman was induced to run by SCAF in order to then open the door to banning a whole series of other candidates they didn't fancy behind popular opposition to him - and to allow the current set-up to appear to be opposed to the remnants of the Mubarak regime and their attempst to cling onto political power rather than the reality of them being the expression of its continued existence.
 
Makes sense, as usual its hard to be certain but it wouldn't shock me if it were true.

To get a better picture of this possibility it would be handy to know who SCAFs preferred candidate really is. Any ideas?
 
Just started to familiarise myself with the candidates. Have only scratched the surface so far, but Amr Moussa looks to be a rather obviously suitable presidential candidate for the US and I presume SCAF, and the opinion polls look pretty favourable towards him. Ahmed Shafik also seems compatible with SCAF.
 
*bump*

Well, nothing's perfect, but this is some day - whoduthunkit, eh?

A-woman-shows-her-ink-sta-008.jpg
 
It certainly is something. The change that has taken place so far hardly begins to be sufficient, but at a minimum its been enough to give people there the feeling that they should demand change, that their voices were not silenced permanently, and so the potential for interesting stuff to happen one day remains unlocked.

Meanwhile a few days back it sounds like scaf showed their hand somewhat in terms of their plans to mutate the constitution so that they can remain powerful & secretive, although I was waiting till some more details emerge before commenting further on this one. lets just say it was typical and delivered with the crude lack of subtlety that SCAF have become associated with in the days since the 'people and the army are as one' stuff subsided.
 
Well it sounds like Egyptians are getting a fair taste for what more open elections are all about.They are getting to see what a well-oiled (but not directly connected to the state) party apparatus can do to help turnout their vote on the day, what its like to hold your nose and vote for the least worst option, and generational voting splits that are often along the lines of 'safe pair of hands' vs 'candidate that doesn't make total mockery of the revolution'.
 
Not well enough to prevent it coming down to a runoff election between the Muslim Brotherhood candidate and the former PM, from what I can tell at this point.

Sadly this isn't terribly surprising. Whilst the results show that other forces which had been mostly kept off the radar until the uprising are so much more than an electorally irrelevant minority, it wasn't enough to prevent the presidential election from ending up giving people second round options which are an ill fit for their hopes and prior sacrifices.
 
As best I can tell Sabahi has rejected offers of being vice-president (& telling his supporters to vote for a particular candidate in the runoff), and has been making noises about electoral fraud, appealing, and suggesting that he will be in the run-off as a result of this. I have little way to evaluate how likely he actually thinks this is. Official confirmation of results should come Monday or Tuesday.
 
Oh dear. Not a surprising scene really, indeed useful to see it mentioned in the press, but even so.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/28/w...gyptian-elites-fears.html?_r=3&pagewanted=all


Ahmed Shafik said he never regretted calling former President Hosni Mubarak “a role model.”
At the lunch of elite businessmen held this month by the American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt, an umbrella group for multinationals and those who work with them, the crowd erupted in applause.
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These fears were much in evidence at the American Chamber event. The well-heeled audience cheered as Mr. Shafik suggested that he would use executions and brutal force to restore order within a month, repeatedly mocked the Islamist-led Parliament and accused, against all evidence, the Islamists of harboring hidden militias to use in a civil war.
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BREAKING: Egypt court retires to consider Shafiq candidacy verdict

Egypt's High Constitutional Court has adjourned to decide on the constitutionality of the country's disenfranchisement law. Judges are expected to deliver their verdict this afternoon.

If applied, the disenfranchisement law would disqualify Ahmed Shafiq from the presidential election runoff and lead to a re-run of the election.

The court will also rule on the constitutionality of Egypt's recent parliamentary elections.
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