Tearing Egypt...

[Tomchyk]

Of course Muslim Brotherhood will drag Egypt to dark middle ages, does anyone have doubts? And those attacks on Shafiq's HQs, they are not accidental, that's because Muslim Brotherhood is not satisfied that Shafiq entered the second round with their candidate Mursi. So they decided to threaten Shafiq and his supporters by burning his HQs and that's happened just after leaders of Muslim Brotherhood met with US ambassador to Egypt in Cairo... It seems that Washington and Islamists came to a consensus of opinion that they don't want to see recovery of secular regime and annealing of political situation in Egypt. Of course they don't because if any real authorities will rule the country it'll be hard for Muslim Brotherhood or some other destructive forces to split the income from Suez Canal and also from oil and gas fields on the seashore of the Red Sea. I'm sure that Americans and Muslim Brotherhood made a deal, American support in all things in exchange for resources...

 

[waltky]

Egypt's Arab Spring - dey gonna spring Mubarak outta jail an' put him back in power...

Egypt court dissolves parliament
June 15, 2012 - Judges appointed by Hosni Mubarak have dissolved the Islamist-dominated parliament and ruled his former prime minister eligible for the presidential runoff election this weekend - setting the stage for the military and remnants of the old regime to stay in power.

Thursday's politically charged rulings dealt a heavy blow to the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood, with one senior member calling the decisions a "full-fledged coup", and the group vowed to rally the public against Ahmed Shafiq, the last prime minister to serve under Mubarak. The decision by the Supreme Constitutional Court effectively erased the tenuous progress from Egypt's troubled transition in the past year, leaving the country with no parliament and concentrating power even more firmly in the hands of the generals who took over from Mubarak. Several hundred people gathered in Cairo's Tahrir Square after the rulings to denounce the action and rally against Shafiq, the presidential candidate seen by critics as a symbol of Mubarak's autocratic rule. But with no calls by the Brotherhood or other groups for massive demonstrations, the crowd did not grow.

Activists who engineered Egypt's uprising have long suspected that the generals would try to cling to power, explaining that after 60 years as the nation's single most dominant institution, the military would be reluctant to surrender its authority or leave its economic empire to civilian scrutiny. Shafiq's rival in the Saturday-Sunday runoff, Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, said he was unhappy about the rulings but accepted them. "It is my duty as the future president of Egypt, God willing, to separate between the state's authorities and accept the rulings," the US-trained engineer said in a television interview. Late Thursday, he told a news conference: "Millions will go to the ballot boxes on Saturday and Sunday to say 'No' to the tyrants."

Senior Brotherhood leader and lawmaker Mohammed el-Beltagy was less diplomatic, saying the judges' action amounted to a "full-fledged coup" . "This is the Egypt that Shafiq and the military council want and which I will not accept no matter how dear the price is," he wrote on his Facebook page. Equally blunt was another Brotherhood stalwart, lawmaker Subhi Saleh. "The court, I can say, has handed Egypt to the military council on a golden platter and free of charge too," he said. In last year's parliamentary elections - Egypt's first democratic ones in generations - the Brotherhood became the biggest party in the legislature, with nearly half the seats, alongside more conservative Islamists who took another 20 per cent. It is hoping to win the presidency as well.

The rulings, however, take away the Brotherhood's power base in parliament and boost Shafiq at a time when the Islamists are at sharp odds with a wide array of major forces, including the military, the judiciary and pro-democracy groups behind the uprising. The court also derailed the broader transition to democracy, said rights activist Hossam Bahgat. "The military placed all powers in its hands. The entire process has been undermined beyond repair," Bahgat said. "They now have the legislative and the executive powers in their hands and there is a big likelihood that the military-backed candidate (Shafiq) is going to win. It is a soft military coup that unfortunately many people will support out of fear of an Islamist takeover of the state."

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Egyptians Outraged By Parliament Dissolution; Muslim Brotherhood Warns Of 'Dark Tunnel'
June 14, 2012 : Many Egyptians are outraged following the Supreme Court's decision to dissolve the lower house of parliament, temporarily transferring power to the Military Council until new elections are held.

The court ruled that last year's parliamentary elections were unconstitutional, saying they were improperly regulated and that one-third of the seats in the Islamist-dominated parliament were invalid. Although the court has called for new elections, the ruling is seen as a slight against the democratic will of the Egyptian people, which was only exacerbated by a separate ruling that upheld former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq's participation in the presidential run-off elections this weekend. Muslim Brotherhood MP Mohamed Al-Beltagy said the rulings "amount to a comprehensive coup which is reversing the most noble 16 months in this nation's history ... This is the Egypt that Ahmed Shafiq and those behind him want," BBC reported.

Another Muslim Brotherhood figure, Essam Al-Arian, warned the ruling on parliament will send Egypt into a "dark tunnel". Shafiq, who served under deposed President Hosni Mubarak, is the preferred candidate of the military, but viewed with distrust by Egypt's conservative Islamic political parties -- the Muslim Brotherhood and the ultra-conservative Salafist al-Nour party in particular -- for his role in the former regime. The Muslim Brotherhood holds the majority of seats in parliament's lower house with 47 percent, followed by al-Nour with 24 percent.

Shafiq will face-off with the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice party candidate Mohamed Mursi in run-off elections on Saturday and Sunday. Mursi said the Supreme Court rulings "must be respected" despite outrage from members of his coalition. "I respect the decision of the Supreme Constitutional Court in that I respect the institutions of the state and the principle of separation of powers," Mursi told Egyptian TV.

With the elections presenting a conservative Islamist and a former Mubarak-era official as the only two options, secular and liberal Egyptians, many of whom led the uprising in Tahrir Square that toppled Mubarak last year but who represent a minority in parliament, are disillusioned with the unfolding of the democratic process post-revolution and plan to boycott the elections. The court rulings have only cemented political apathy among this constituency which had once been so energized to take down Mubarak. "Egypt just witnessed the smoothest military coup," said Hossam Bahgat, a human rights activist. "We'd be outraged if we weren't so exhausted."

Source

 

[Unkotare]

Looks like the military may be taking things over at this point. It'll be interesting to see how the public (and the 'brotherhood') responds.

 

[waltky]

Oops! Mebbe Uncle Joe should read the mornin' paper...

Biden Praises Arab Spring on Same Day Egypt Dissolves Its Parliament
June 14, 2012 - Vice President Joe Biden, speaking at a high school commencement ceremony in Virginia on Thursday, called the Arab Spring a “democratic movement”--on the same day that the Egyptian high court nullified the Islamist majority parliament and the Egyptian military assumed control of the legislature.

“The democratic movement that swept across the Middle East, the so called Arab Spring, began when a lowly fruit vendor set himself ablaze to protest a corrupt government, igniting a confrontation magnified by social media that literally set off a revolution that was waiting to happen for well over 200 years,” Biden said in his speech at Tallwood High School in Virginia Beach, Va. In Cairo on Thursday, the Egyptian high court determined that the regulatory laws for parliamentary elections are invalid, meaning by law the current parliament is nullified and obligated to dissolve.

According to the Congressional Research Service (CRS), the Egyptian parliament was dominated by Islamists. "On January 23, the People’s Assembly held its inaugural session following what many international observers have deemed to be a somewhat successful, though not perfect, election for the lower house of parliament known as the People’s Assembly," the CRS reported.

"Of the 498 elected seats, Islamists of varying sorts control nearly 70%, with the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP)-led Democratic Alliance controlling the most at 47% (235 total)," said CRS. "The Islamist Alliance-list led by the Salafist Nour Party came second with 25% (125 seats), followed by the Wafd at 8% and the liberal Egyptian bloc party list at 6.8%. The SCAF appointed 10 seats (mostly women and Coptic Christians). With an overwhelming majority of seats, most analysts anticipate that many legislative issues will be subject primarily to intra-Islamist competition between the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafists."

According to Egyptian state media, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which has held central power in Egypt since President Hosni Mubarak resigned in February 2011, has reportedly assumed legislative authority in place of parliament. It is not clear if the ruling, which reportedly approved the right of Ahmed Shafiq, Mubarak’s last prime minister, to run for president, will throw a wrench in the presidential election runoff, set to take place Saturday and Sunday. Shafiq is pitted against the Muslim Brotherhood candidate, Mohammed Morsi.

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Egyptians fear government instability as elections loom
14 June`12 – Moussa Salama Moussa navigated Mount Sinai's treacherous cliffs by the glow of the moon and stars almost every night for 25 years — until Egypt's revolution.

Now it has been weeks since he has made the trek alongside other Bedouin guides and tourists to watch the sun come up from a vantage point on top of the mountain. "We need people to come because we live on tourism," Moussa said, lamenting the decline of the tourism industry plaguing the nation since last year's 18-day revolt that forced then-president Hosni Mubarak from power. "Some people can support themselves from (what's left of) the work, but on the other hand you will find people who don't have anything," he said. "They will sell their goats and camels to feed their families."

As Egyptians prepare to vote for Ahmed Shafiq or Mohammed Morsi in Egypt's final round of presidential elections Saturday and Sunday, many such as Moussa are primarily concerned with economic welfare, as well as restoring security and stability. In the latest sign of political chaos that some are calling a coup, Egypt's constitutional court ruled parliament invalid Thursday, meaning that the governing body elected earlier this year must be dissolved, state television said. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces now has full legislative authority, according to the Associated Press. "God willing, when Mohammed Morsi becomes president, everything will be fine," said Osama Ibrahim, a driver from the seaport city of Suez.

Shafiq has drawn a great deal of support from those seeking law and order - the primary appeal of his campaign. Many say the former civil aviation minister, who was also Mubarak's prime minister, is the one with the most experience. He can restore stability and revive the economy, they say. "There's fatigue with the chaos and uncertainty of the past," said Michael Wahid Hanna of the Century Foundation, a think tank in New York City. Some view Shafiq as a blow to the revolution. But the former regime figure attracts some voters who want a secular state, rather than rule by Islamic law. "Shafiq is the candidate nearest to my idea about what Egypt will be," said Nader Gabra, a Coptic Christian from Cairo who lives in Dahab, a vacationer's town on the Red Sea coast. "The country must be open to all ideas and all religions."

Those who want a complete break from the old regime and believe in rule by Islamic law may look to Mohammed Morsi. "I like Morsi's program," said Mohammad Bedouina, a shop owner from the North Sinai. "And he's afraid of God so he'll do things correctly." Both Morsi and Shafiq have ideas on reviving the economy. "I think they are both running on the platform that it's the private sector that is going to help," said Magda Kandil, executive director of the Egyptian Center for Economic Studies. "But Shafiq's approach is about improving the private sector by improving order and stability." Morsi advocates providing job opportunities for the poor and empowering them through education. It is uncertain to what extent Morsi can exert power and make decisions. "Part of it will depend on what the political landscape looks like," Hanna said. "We know he will not have a free hand because the military will have some role. They will not cede that authority."

Source

 

[waltky]

Didn't dey get it right onna first day?...

Egypt votes for 2nd day to pick Mubarak successor
17 June`12 – Egyptians were choosing on Sunday between a conservative Islamist and Hosni Mubarak's ex-prime minister in the second day of a presidential runoff that has been overshadowed by questions on whether the ruling military will transfer power to civilian authority by July 1 as promised.

Going head-to-head in the runoff are Ahmed Shafiq, a longtime friend and self-confessed admirer of Mubarak, and Mohammed Morsi, the candidate of the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood. The two-day balloting, which ends Sunday evening, followed a week of political drama in which the military slapped de facto martial law on the country and judges appointed by Mubarak before his ouster dissolved the freely elected, Islamist-dominated parliament. The generals who took over from Mubarak 16 months ago are expected this week to spell out the powers of the new president and appoint a 100-member panel to draft a new constitution, moves that will further tighten the military's grip on the nation.

The race between Shafiq and Morsi has deeply divided the country, 16 months after a stunning uprising by millions forced the authoritarian Mubarak to step down after 29 years in office. "I am bitter and I am filled with regret that I have to choose between two people I hate. I have to pick a bad candidate only to avoid the worse of the two," lamented a silver-haired pensioner in Cairo's crowded Bab el-Shariyah district. He refused to give his name, fearing retribution for speaking so openly. "Nothing is going to be resolved and Egypt will not see stability," he added.

A similarly pessimistic note was echoed by another voter, accountant Yasser Gad, 45. "The country is heading to a disaster. It will keep boiling until it explodes. No one in the country wants the former regime to rule us again." Few voters displayed an air of celebration visible in previous post-Mubarak elections. The prevailing mood was one of deep anxiety over the future — tinged with bitterness that their "revolution" had stalled, fears that no matter who wins, street protests will erupt again, or deep suspicion that the political system was being manipulated. Moreover, there was a sense of voting fatigue.

Egyptians have gone to the polls multiple times since Mubarak's fall on Feb. 11, 2011 — a referendum early last year, then three months of multi-round parliamentary elections that began in November, and the first round of presidential elections last month. "It's a farce. I crossed out the names of the two candidates on my ballot paper and wrote 'the revolution continues'," said architect Ahmed Saad el-Deen, in Cairo's Sayedah Zeinab district, a middle-class area that is home to the shrine of a revered Muslim saint. "I can't vote for the one who killed my brother or the second one who danced on his dead body," he said, alluding to Shafiq's alleged role in the killing of protesters during last year's uprising and claims by revolutionaries that Morsi's Brotherhood rode the uprising to realize its own political goals.

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Frustrated Egyptians Look for ‘Third Option’ at Runoff Vote
June 15, 2012 - Egyptian human rights activist and visual artist Aalam Wassef’s latest YouTube video (below) depicts a soldier standing next to a ballot box. With every ballot put into the box, the soldier grows bigger; but in the euphoria of voting, no one notices - until finally they do, but it is too late. The soldier crushes the people with his massive boot, then a logo pops onto the screen: “Boycott the Elections.”

Egypt’s presidential runoff election, slated for June 16-17, pits Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Morsi against former Mubarak prime minister Ahmed Shafiq in what many pro-revolutionary liberals, leftists, and secularists consider a lose-lose scenario. They fear Morsi will impose an Islamic state and strip Egyptians of their personal rights, and that Shafiq, who has not hidden his admiration for the ousted president Hosni Mubarak, will spearhead a return to the old regime. But boycotters are disillusioned with more than just the lackluster list of candidates. A growing number of Egyptians believe that the elections mark not an important milestone but rather the latest stumbling block in what they call Egypt’s mismanaged and undemocratic transition.

They cite the lack of a permanent constitution outlining the president’s powers and methods for holding him accountable, an elections commission lacking transparency and accountability, and a climate in which the military’s control of state institutions and the media allows it to manipulate the elections in order to preserve its own political and economic interests. And so, not wanting their vote to lend legitimacy to either the candidates or to the transition process at large, a growing number of Egyptians are looking to a “third option”. The boycott campaign calls on voters to avoid the ballot box on June 16-17, although organizers emphasize they do not want Egyptians to simply stay home on election day. Rather, they are encouraged to go out into the country’s streets and fill its squares in protest.

Another initiative called ‘Vote Invalidators’ aims to go above and beyond a traditional boycott by having voters go to the polls to submit invalid, or “white” ballots. Videos and posters circulated by the campaign show voters how to invalidate their ballots by marking the box next to both candidates’ names, then writing “null and void,” “the revolution continues,” or a similar phrase in order to confirm the voter’s intent to spoil his or her ballot. At a news conference sponsored by the ‘Vote Invalidators’ campaign, organizer Mohamed Ghoneim said that the main difference between the two initiatives is the level of agency involved in each act of protest. “It is difficult to differentiate between those boycotting in protest of the elections and those who are simply staying at home,” he said. Their intentions may be further masked by the fact that runoff elections typically see a reduced turnout. Only 46 percent of registered voters participated in the first round; that number is expected to be much lower in the second round.

However, because the Supreme Presidential Elections Commission will announce in its final count how many invalid votes were cast, “[Invalidating your vote] is a clear way of saying, ‘I don’t agree with either of these choices,’” said Ghoneim. Several attendees at a ‘Vote Invalidators’ news conference on Sunday said they had boycotted the first round of elections, but now wanted to take the extra step of going to the polls to invalidate their ballots. Others voted in the first round but were disappointed that their candidate of choice did not do well; now, they are determined to vocalize their opposition to the elections in the second round.

Grassroots outreach

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With polls closed, Egypt waits for president
17 June`12 - Egypt tenses for new president after vote

Egyptians began an anxious wait for their first freely elected president on Sunday after two days of voting that was to be the culmination of their Arab Spring revolution but which many fear may now only compound political and economic uncertainty. With polling stations closed at 10 p.m. (2000 GMT), aides to both candidates in the runoff - Ahmed Shafik, a former general who was prime minister when Hosni Mubarak was overthrown, and Mohamed Morsy, an Islamist from the long suppressed Muslim Brotherhood - were claiming their man seemed to be ahead. Counting was under way but, in a country unused to free elections, it was unclear how soon any indication of the result would emerge. After a first round of voting last month, which knocked out several popular candidates, it took several hours.

On Monday, the new president, whether Morsy or Shafik, will be told, along with the rest of the country, what powers he will have by the ruling generals. Military and legal sources told Reuters the military council would take back legislative powers for now from a new, Islamist-dominated parliament that it has dissolved following a court ruling voiding an earlier election. Turnout, only 46 percent in the first round of the presidential vote, appeared to electoral officials to have been no higher for the decisive head-to-head contest. Many of the 50 million eligible voters were dismayed by an unpalatable choice between a man seen as an heir to Mubarak and the nominee of a religious party committed to reversing liberal social traditions. Some cast a ballot against both men in protest. "I'll cross out both Morsy and Shafik because neither deserve to be president," said Saleh Ashour, 40, a shopkeeper in the middle-class Cairo neighborhood of Dokki as he went to vote. "I want to make a statement by crossing out the two names. "Just staying away is too passive."

COMPETING VISIONS

Shafik, 70, had promised he had heeded the lessons of the revolution 16 months ago and offered security and prosperity. Morsy, 60, tried to widen his appeal beyond the Brotherhood's committed and disciplined base by pledging to preserve a pluralist democracy and finally end a history of military rule. In the second city, Alexandria, computer engineer Sameh Youssef, 30, was wary of Islamist rule but wanted to honor the dead of an uprising launched by frustrated young urbanites: "I will vote Morsy," he said. "Not because I like him but because I hate Shafik. Between us and Shafik there is blood." In Old Cairo, however, 56-year-old physician Khalil Nagih echoed the sentiments of many, including Christians like himself, whose mistrust of the Brotherhood and desire for an end to a year of chaos outweighed anxiety about the army's role: "I chose Shafik because he has experience of administration and was an officer. He is a straight talker and he speaks to all communities. He says he'll solve our problems and I believe him. Morsy will bring a religious state and take Egypt backwards."

MILITARY DECREE

 

[SherriMunnerlyn]

Muslim Brotherhood's Morsi claims win

VOA Mobile - English

I am happy to read this, and I hope the election is not stolen by corruption.

 

[waltky]

Army pro'bly tired of the whole process of runnin' the country by now anyway...

Egypt's army vows to hand power to elected president
18 June 2012 - The BBC's Jon Leyne in Cairo explains the implications of the military's move

Egypt's ruling military council has vowed to hand over power to an elected president by the end of June. The promise comes as votes are counted after Sunday's presidential run-off election, with both candidates claiming they are ahead in early results. However, the council had earlier issued a declaration granting itself sweeping powers over legislation and the introduction of a new constitution. Opposition groups condemned the declaration as a "coup".

Lt Muhammad al-Assar from the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (Scaf) told a news conference that a ceremony would be held in late June to hand over power to the new president, state media report. However, the constitutional declaration issued by the Scaf late on Sunday effectively gives it legislative powers, control over the budget and over who writes the permanent constitution following mass street protests that toppled Mr Mubarak in February 2011. It also strips the president of any authority over the army. The Scaf have even guaranteed themselves jobs for life, the BBC's Jon Leyne in Cairo reports.

'Grave setback'

There have been no big protests so far - the military must be hoping that Egyptians are simply too tired of politics to protest, and are willing to go for stability whatever the cost, our correspondent says. But the army's declaration was widely condemned in opposition circles. Prominent political figure Mohamed ElBaradei has described the document as a "grave setback for democracy and revolution". Former presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabahi, who came third in the first round of voting and was the favoured candidate of many in the protest movement, said the declaration was a "seizure of the future of Egypt". "We will not accept domination by any party," Mr Sabahi said.

Parliament speaker Saad al-Katatni, of the Muslim Brotherhood, said the declaration was "null and void". The Brotherhood had earlier urged Egyptians to "protect their revolution" after the Scaf dissolved parliament - dominated by the Brotherhood - on Saturday. Two days earlier, the Supreme Constitutional Court ruled that last year's legislative polls were unconstitutional because party members were allowed to contest seats in the lower house reserved for independents. On Monday morning, soldiers prevented MPs from entering parliament.

'No revenge'

See also:

Egypt’s military issues decree giving vast powers to armed forces, but few to president
18 June`12 — Egypt’s military leaders issued a constitutional decree Sunday that gave the armed forces sweeping powers and degraded the presidency to a subservient role, as the Muslim Brotherhood declared that its candidate had won the country’s presidential runoff election.

The bold assertion of power by the ruling generals followed months in which they had promised to cede authority to a new civilian government by the end of June. Instead, activists and political analysts said, the generals’ move marked the start of a military dictatorship, a sharp reversal from the promise of Egypt’s popular revolt last year. The declaration, published in the state gazette, had been expected, but its details indicate that the military has asserted far greater authority than observers had anticipated. Under the order, the president will have no control over the military’s budget or leadership and will not be authorized to declare war without the consent of the ruling generals.

The document said the military would soon name a group of Egyptians to draft a new constitution, which will be subject to a public referendum within three months. Once a new charter is in place, a parliamentary election will be held to replace the Islamist-dominated lower house that was dissolved Thursday after the country’s high court ruled that one-third of the chamber’s members had been elected unlawfully. “With this document, Egypt has completely left the realm of the Arab Spring and entered the realm of military dictatorship,” said Hossam Bahgat, a prominent human rights activist. “This is worse than our worst fears.”

The declaration left little doubt that the generals have moved aggressively to preserve and expand their privileged status after a transitional period that revealed the significant appeal of Islamist politicians. It also indicates the military leadership’s concern about accountability if a system of civilian rule with checks and balances were to take root. The Obama administration, with the president spending the day in Chicago and much of his national security staff in Mexico preparing for this week’s Group of 20 summit there, had no initial reaction to the new developments. But the decree appeared likely to compound the administration’s frustration over its waning influence in Egypt.

Less than 48 hours before the declaration was issued, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta telephoned Field Marshal Mohammed Hussein Tantawi, head of Egypt’s ruling military council, to underscore “the need to ensure a full and peaceful transition to democracy,” the Pentagon said. Thursday’s dissolution of parliament also prompted Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the appropriations subcommittee in charge of foreign aid, to warn the State Department against disbursing any of this year’s $1.3 billion in military aid to Egypt.

Brotherhood decries order

 

[Katzndogz]

Judging from the photos that are coming out of Egypt now, Egypt is ready to become another Syria. congratulations obama, another success.

 

[Moonglow]

Obama does not run the nation, Egyptians and the military does.

 

[Katzndogz]

Obama does not run the nation, Egyptians and the military does.

obama was highly instrumental in forcing Mubarak to step down. obama is the cause of the continued fighting in Syria, whether obama was chiefly instrumental in the carnage in Libya after Gaddafi was removed from power is doubtful but certainly something liberals love to celebrate.

 

[waltky]

Egyptian military keepin' ever'body in suspense, gonna have to wait to see who won...

Egyptian election result is delayed until the weekend
21 June`12 - The results of Egypt’s presidential election have been delayed adding to the tension in Tahrir Square.

The people had been expecting to discover the winner today. Now they will have to wait until the weekend.

The problem is said to be due to the number of voting appeals but some like the Speaker of Egypt’s dissolved parliament, Saad al-Katatni smell a political rat: “The military council, in an indirect manner, is not going to hand over power on June 30. And after the drawing up of the constitution, they will keep hold of legislative powers until the election of a new parliament. This could take months, it could take years.”

Last weekend’s presidential run-off pitted Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsy against former Hosni Mubarak ally Ahmed Shafiq. Both claim to have won.

Many of the thousands filling Tahrir Square are unconvinced there is any need to delay declaring the official winner. “There’s nothing wrong with the number of votes counted,” said one protester. “The number of votes which was announced by Mohamed Morsy’s campaign is the same as those announced by the Judges.” “Delaying the results of the election means there is an intention to rig it. They mean to betray the elected president,” added another.

Those who are already critical of the military’s decision to dissolve parliament and to decree the army sweeping new powers have become even more angry.

Source

 

[waltky]

Tantawi tryin' to provoke a conflict with the Mooslamic Brotherhood...

Egypt's army chief raises stakes with Islamists
15 July`12 – Egypt's top general on Sunday raised the stakes in the military's political standoff with the Muslim Brotherhood, saying the armed forces will not allow a "certain group" to dominate the country.

Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi's tough comments came only hours after he met with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who urged him to work with President Mohammed Morsi, of the Brotherhood, on a full transition to civilian rule. The military, which ruled after the fall last year of Hosni Mubarak, and the Brotherhood, the country's strongest political force, are in a competition over power that has intensified with Morsi's winning of the presidency last month. Days before Morsi was sworn in on June 30, the Brotherhood-led parliament was dissolved and the generals gave themselves legislative and budgetary authority and control over the process of drafting a new constitution, put severe limits on the president's authority.

In his comments Sunday, Tantawi did not specify the Brotherhood, but his reference that the military would not allow the group to hold sway was clear. "Egypt will never fall. It belongs to all Egyptians and not to a certain group — the armed forces will not allow it," Tantawi told reporters after a handover ceremony for the transfer of command of the armed forces' 2nd Army in the Suez Canal city of Ismailia. "The armed forces will not allow anyone, especially those pushed from outside, to distract it from its role as the protector of Egypt," he said. "The army will never commit treason and will continue to perform its duties until Egypt reaches the shores of safety." Tantawi has made similar comments at least once in the past, but it was the first time he made the statement since Morsi's inauguration. It was an authoritative signal that the military has no intention of giving the Brotherhood a free rein. Tantawi, Mubarak's defense minister for 20 years, is the most senior of the generals who took power after Mubarak's ouster 17 months ago.

The military and the Brotherhood have bad blood since the 1950s, when then-president Gamal Abdel-Nasser jailed the group's leaders and hundreds if its members. He ordered another crackdown in the early 1960s, jailing some again and executing a few. Mubarak spent most of his 29 years in office chasing after the Brotherhood, jailing thousands. In meetings Saturday with Morsi and on Sunday with Tantawi, Clinton said the U.S. wanted the two sides to work together to bring a full civilian democratic rule. Without taking a position in disputes over parliament or how to draft a new constitution, Clinton urged the military chief to return the armed forces to a "purely national security role," as she termed it Saturday. On Sunday, Clinton said that resolving the impasse "requires dialogue and compromise, real politics." The United States, she added, is doing all it can to "support the democratically elected government and to help make it a success in delivering results for the people of Egypt."

Morsi's efforts to recall Egypt's Islamist-led parliament — which was dissolved by the military last month — suffered a setback Saturday, when an appeals court said it stood by another court's ruling that the chamber was invalid because a third of its members were illegally elected. Acting on the Supreme Constitutional Court's June 14 verdict, the then-ruling military disbanded the 508-seat chamber. Morsi defied that ruling and ordered the legislature to reconvene last week. During a brief session of parliament on Tuesday, speaker Saad el-Katatni referred the constitutional court's ruling to the country's highest appeals court for a legal opinion. After a lengthy discussion on Saturday, the appeals court refused to take up the case, saying it had no jurisdiction over the implementation of the constitutional court's ruling.

Source

 

[Moonglow]

Of course Muslim Brotherhood will drag Egypt to dark middle ages, does anyone have doubts? And those attacks on Shafiq's HQs, they are not accidental, that's because Muslim Brotherhood is not satisfied that Shafiq entered the second round with their candidate Mursi. So they decided to threaten Shafiq and his supporters by burning his HQs and that's happened just after leaders of Muslim Brotherhood met with US ambassador to Egypt in Cairo... It seems that Washington and Islamists came to a consensus of opinion that they don't want to see recovery of secular regime and annealing of political situation in Egypt. Of course they don't because if any real authorities will rule the country it'll be hard for Muslim Brotherhood or some other destructive forces to split the income from Suez Canal and also from oil and gas fields on the seashore of the Red Sea. I'm sure that Americans and Muslim Brotherhood made a deal, American support in all things in exchange for resources...

In Mexico opposition candidates have been assasinated, they are not Muslim. The Muslim brother hodd can't get the military cause they are a seperate power entity from them in Egypt. The military stripped all powers from the civilian leadership.
If you think that deals are not done to put people in power than educate yourself.
But one thing would be nice, if you and other chicken littles would stop runing aroung claiming the sky is falling.

 

[Katzndogz]

Once we celebrated Egypt's destabilization. What went wrong?