Cairo: Today sees the first parliamentary elections in Egypt since the ousting of Hosni Mubarak, but protesters are still camped in Tahrir Square demanding the departure of the country’s military leadership.
Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, the leader of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, has said elections in Egypt will go ahead as planned, despite a week of protest in which dozens have died
Spokesmen for the Coptic Church have denied that it was directing its members to vote for particular candidates.
Al-Masry Al-Youm reports that the church’s Pope stressed in his sermon today that Coptic Christians should vote, but did not say who they should vote for. Instead, Pope Shenouda said that they should cast their vote for “a suitable candidate” whether Muslim or Christian.
According to Huffington Post “at the occasion of Egypt’s first democratic elections since the fall of Hosni Mubarak, voter confusion and the complexity of the process threaten to undermine the balloting — assuming, that is, that renewed unrest doesn’t sideline voting altogether.”
An Egyptian human rights group EIPR has released a report which it says shows that security forces deliberately aimed to deprive protesters of their sight, during this week’s demonstrations, by shooting rubber bullets and birdshot at their eyes.
Following tension over allowing international vote monitoring in Egypt’s elections, the Egyptian government now says it is welcoming international observers to “witness” the parliamentary polls, slated to kick off today in some parts of the country.
Egypt will choose a 498-member parliament in the three-stage election process begins Monday and continues till Jan. 3. Final results are scheduled to be announced on Jan. 13.
According to Egypt election commission about 50 million out of a population of 80 million are eligible to vote. Two thirds of the seats are allocated to candidates running on party lists, while a third of seats are set aside for individual candidates.
The parliament’s main task is to form a committee of 100 people to draft the country’s new constitution.
Muslim Brotherhood (MB) media spokesman Dr. Mahmoud Ghozlan asserted that the group has decided to head to Tahrir Square if SCAF fails to intervene and withdraw the supra-constitutional principles proposed by Deputy Prime Minister Ali Elselmy.
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