Is Egypt going Algeria way?

By Soroor Ahmed (NVONews.com)

After June 16-17 presidential election many political observers have started fearing that Egypt may go the Algeria way. This is being debated in the political circle in the Middle East, North Africa and other Muslim countries. Two decades back, in 1992 to be precise,  the army intervened in Algeria when the Islamic Salvation Front was about to win the election.

There is a fear that the Egyptian army may do the same. And there is reason for it too. For example, though the Higher Presidential Election Commission of the country had earlier fixed Thursday as the day for the final announcement of the result it has now announced that the official result would be out by Sunday.

This has sparked off a widespread protest all over the country with thousands of people thronging Tahrir Square in Cairo for the third day on Thursday.

The Muslim Brotherhood––whose victory claim was even endorsed by independent media––see a sinister army design in manipulating the results. They see the move as the link in the same chain––the Supreme Constitutional Court ruling declaring the result of one-third MPs as unconstitutional, the subsequent dissolution  of Parliament by military junta and acquiring of more power by it just after the polling was over on Sunday last.

As reported on Monday the Brotherhood had already claimed that its candidate, Mohammad Mursi, won 52 per cent of votes. A day later, Ahmed Shafiq, claimed victory. Shafiq is also a former army officer and the last prime minister of the ousted dictator, Hosni Mubarak. As Shafiq had earlier called Mubarak his “role model” there is speculation that he is still close to military junta.

The Muslim Brotherhood had already threatened to take to the streets in protest of moves taken by the ruling generals to deny them power.

For a second night on Wednesday, thousands of protesters gathered in Tahrir Square, to remind the army of their power. It is these demonstrations, which on Feb 11, 2011, forced the 30 years old Hosni Mubarak rule to go.

The Election Commission, which had spent four days gathering and counting ballots now said it would miss a target of Thursday for announcing the result as it was going through hundreds of complaints submitted by either side. As the weekend starts on Friday, that might mean a wait until Sunday.

According to Judge Maher el-Beheiry, a member of the Commission, “We are taking our time to review the appeals to investigate them properly but, God willing, the results will be announced by Sunday at most, if not before that.”

As troops prepared to secure major cities, Cairo is agog with different types of stories bordering even rumours. But the military denied any unusual activity beyond an alertness in case of trouble from supporters of whichever side loses the election.

Anyway the delay in announcing a result fuelled mutual suspicions of foul play.

Muslim Brotherhood leader Essam el-Erian was quoted by Al-Jazeera as saying: “There is absolutely no justification for the result of the vote to be delayed.”

“I call on General Shafiq, who learned chivalry in the Egyptian army, to come out tonight and congratulate the real winner, DrMohammad Mursi,” he further added.

However, he said there is absolutely no reason for a civil war or no fear of violence.

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Posted by admin on June 21, 2012. Filed under Latest, world. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry