Latest in Tag: presidential elections Highlight
Latest in Tag: presidential elections
Both presidential camps claim victory
With unofficial voting tallies, both candidates claim the country’s highest seat and accuse the other of fraud.
Pundits consider election implications
As most Egyptians sweated through Sunday night, waiting to know who has won the presidency, opinion writers in Egyptian newspapers analyzed the whole transition phase and the extension of powers by the Supreme Council for the Armed Force (SCAF). With the sudden announcement of a new constitutional declaration, only a few hours before the early …
Violations reported in run off
Grave election violations were reported by observers during the two days of voting in Egypt’s final round run-off between Mohammed Morsi and Ahmed Shafiq. In the most notable case ‘pre-selected’ ballots were discovered in which Mohammed Morsi’s named was already chosen, without a registered voters name yet associated with the ballot. Counsellor Farouk Sultan, the …
Disenchantment keeps Egyptians home
Observers cite ailing transition as reason for relatively low turnout.
Boycott more significant than expected
Some choose to invalidate their votes while millions simply stayed home.
April 6 members arrested
At least twelve April 6 Youth Movement activists were arrested on the first day of the run-offs of the presidential elections, according to Ahmed, a member of the youth movement in Cairo who refused to give his full name. Ahmed confirmed the activists were accused of “violating the electoral silence and for campaigning in violation …
New Brotherhood candidate for Egypt vote may struggle
By Tom Pfeiffer / Reuters CAIRO: The man thrust unexpectedly into the limelight as the Muslim Brotherhood’s candidate to lead Egypt is a mild-mannered figure whose low public profile may leave him struggling against more forceful rivals vying for the votes of Islamists and others. Mohamed Morsi, the head of the Brotherhood’s political party, was …
Amr Moussa promises to rebuild Egypt in one presidential term
By Heba Hesham CAIRO: Presidential candidate Amr Moussa promised Wednesday to rebuild the country in one presidential term, saying he won’t seek a second. The candidate presented his electoral program, which he says focuses on the poor and the marginalized, at the shantytown of Ezbet El-Hagana in east Cairo. Egypt’s former foreign minister said he …
Abu Ismail supporters continue sit-in, await his ‘signal’
By Heba Hesham CAIRO: Supporters of Hazem Salah Abu Ismail vowed Wednesday to continue their open-ended sit-in at his behest, after the Presidential Election Committee’s excluded him from the race a day earlier. Abu Ismail announced Tuesday night that he would start a sit-in in front of the headquarters of the PEC after he and …
Egypt vote chaos boosts Moussa, Abol Fotoh
By Tom Perry / Reuters CAIRO: The race for the Egyptian presidency has been redefined by the disqualification of Hosni Mubarak’s spy chief and prominent Islamists, including a Muslim Brotherhood candidate and a popular Salafi cleric. The developments add to the turbulence of a transition to democracy that has been punctuated by spasms of violence …
PEC upholds bans on all 10 presidential hopefuls
By Reuters CAIRO: Ten candidates for the Egyptian presidency including Hosni Mubarak’s spy chief, a Muslim Brotherhood leader and a Salafi preacher lost appeals against disqualification from the race, two sources on the committee overseeing the vote told Reuters. “All appeals have been rejected because nothing new was offered in the appeal requests,” a member …
Salafi, Mubarak ex-VP fail in election appeals
By Ali Abelatti / Reuters CAIRO: The commission overseeing Egypt’s presidential election has upheld rulings disqualifying eight candidates including former spy chief Omar Suleiman and Salafi preacher Hazem Salah Abu Ismail, the state-owned al-Ahram newspaper said on Tuesday. The panel has yet to decide on appeals lodged by two other candidates including the Muslim Brotherhood’s …
Candidate bans may ease rancor of Egypt vote
By Tom Pfeiffer and Yasmine Saleh / Reuters CAIRO: A move to exclude some of the more divisive contenders from Egypt’s presidential election may help moderate candidates seen as better able to forge the consensus many believe can foster a peaceful transition to democracy. Two prominent Islamists — one a hardline Salafi sheikh, the other …
US backs ‘free and fair’ Egypt election
By AFP WASHINGTON: The United States on Monday voiced support for “free and fair” elections in Egypt but declined to wade into a debate over the disqualification of leading presidential candidates. The election commission on Saturday barred 10 of the 23 registered candidates from the May 23-24 election, throwing into turmoil Egypt’s first presidential vote …
Politicians wary of SCAF’s talk about constitution before presidential election
By Heba Hesham CAIRO: Egypt’s politicians were concerned over what they perceived as intentions to postpone the long-awaited presidential election, after the head of the ruling military council insisted Sunday that a new constitution be drafted first. The presidential election is slated for May 23-24, and the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces has promised …
Suleiman wants balancing role as president
By Marwa Awad and Dina Zayed / Reuters CAIRO: Omar Suleiman, the former spy chief now trying to run for the Egyptian presidency, says he wants the job to stop it going to the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood – but sees the Brotherhood playing a vital role in Egyptian politics. A powerful but shadowy figure during …
Top contenders fight to stay in presidential election
By Agencies CAIRO: Three top contenders for Egypt’s presidency were scrambling to stay in the election race after the authorities disqualified them on technical grounds, prompting one to say that a “major crisis” threatened the landmark vote. The election is seen as the last step to democracy after more than a year of unstable army …
Hail the politics of exclusion
By Rania Al Malky CAIRO: Is it too late to salvage what’s left of Egypt’s so-called revolution? Is it too late to go back to the drawing board? Judging by the People’s Assembly’s decision to amendment political participation Law 73 of 1956, it’s not. But there’s a catch. The PA can decide all it wants, …
Appeals against candidates processed amid calls for Friday demonstrations
By Heba Hesham CAIRO: The Presidential Election Committee began Thursday to consider objections presented by candidates over the eligibility of fellow contenders, as political powers called for a million-strong demonstration Friday to protest the nomination of members of the former regimes and law clauses giving the PEC legal immunity. On Wednesday, the committee said it received …
Profiles of Egypt’s main presidential candidates
By AP The Islamists: Khairat Al-Shater Deputy head of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s strongest political movement, and thus a top contender. A behind-the-scenes operator, Al-Shater, 61, is the top Brotherhood strategist and a chief financier. Educated as an engineer, Al-Shater is a multimillionaire, owning or running a network of businesses, including investment companies, manufacturers and a …
Court adjourns hearings of 3 presidential hopefuls’ qualification
By Heba Hesham CAIRO: An Administrative Court adjourned Tuesday appeals related to the validity of three presidential nominees’ candidacy to an exceptional session Wednesday morning to submit the required documents. Ultraconservative Islamist hopeful Hazem Salah Abu Ismail filed a lawsuit to oblige the interior ministry to provide documents proving his mother does not hold the US …
Army ‘neutral’ towards candidates for president
By AFP CAIRO: Egypt’s ruling military is not fielding a candidate in next month’s presidential election, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) chief Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi said on Monday. “The armed forces do not have a candidate in the next presidential election,” the official MENA news agency quoted Tantawi as saying, adding …
Abol Fotoh struggles to keep focus on platform and away from voter polarization
By Sarah El Sirgany CAIRO: In a continuously changing political scene, presidential candidate Abdel Moneim Abol Fotoh struggles to keep the focus on his electoral program. He condemns the polarization that’s already taking its toll on his bid, but also has nothing but disdain for the nomination of Omar Suleiman, the vice president appointed before the …
Mubarak aide presidency bid an ‘insult’: Islamist rival
By Marwa Awad and AbdelRahman Youssef / Reuters CAIRO: A bid for power by Hosni Mubarak’s former intelligence chief is an insult to Egypt’s revolution that, if successful, would trigger a second nationwide revolt, the Muslim Brotherhood’s candidate for Egypt’s presidency said. In his first public comments since being nominated by the Brotherhood on March …
Suleiman says not backed by army, alleges Brotherhood behind death threats
By Reuters CAIRO: Hosni Mubarak’s former intelligence chief said his bid for the presidency does not have the support of Egypt’s military rulers and accused Islamists of sending him death threats, an Egyptian newspaper reported on Monday. Omar Suleiman, 74, announced his candidacy on Friday and showed he still wields political clout by collecting around …
Military backs Mubarak’s VP for president
By Hamza Hendawi / AP CAIRO: Hosni Mubarak’s former vice president and spy chief Omar Suleiman will have the behind-the-scenes backing of Egypt’s ruling generals and the state media’s powerful propaganda machine in his bid to succeed his longtime mentor for the nation’s highest office, according to officials with firsthand knowledge. Suleiman, 75, will set …
Egyptian court stops opposition figure from presidential run
By AFP CAIRO: An administrative court in Egypt on Saturday blocked opposition figure Ayman Nour from running in next month’s presidential election, the official news agency Mena reported. The court ruled him out under the terms of a law disqualifying anyone who had been jailed for a six-year period following the end of the sentence …
Al-Shater submits candidacy docs with thousands of Brotherhood supporters
By Mai Shams El-Din CAIRO: Former deputy supreme guide of the Muslim Brotherhood Khairat Al-Shater submitted on Thursday the candidacy application for the presidential elections as thousands of supporters gathered to celebrate his candidacy in a scene similar to Salafi candidate Hazem Salah Abu Ismail’s application showdown a week earlier. Al-Shater was accompanied by the group’s …
Presidential race intensifies as hopefuls present candidacy applications
By Heba Hesham CAIRO: As the official deadline for submitting candidacy applications for the presidential race approaches, potential candidates are scrambling to get their foot in the door. Rumors about the nomination of former vice president and former intelligence chief Omar Soliman have heated up the race, especially since Al-Ahram newspaper quoted former Prime Minister Ahmed …
Abol Fotoh outlines election program, celebrates candidacy approval
By Amir Makar CAIRO: Thousands gathered on Monday night to celebrate the acceptance of presidential candidate Abdel-Moneim Abol Fotoh’s application by the Presidential Election Committee. “We can realize our dreams with the cooperation of the great Egyptian people,” Abol Fotoh said in his speech, pledging to make use of Egypt’s “most valuable source of wealth”, human …