Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Egypt election: Will Egyptians respect the outcome?

An artist puts the finishing touches to a mural depicting some of the candidates alongside faces from the old regime
When polling stations open for Egypt's presidential elections on Wednesday, voters will be choosing between an extraordinary range of options.


The choice they make will not just determine the country's immediate future - it will decide what sort of Egypt will be built on the foundations of last year's uprising against authoritarian rule.


Among the 12 candidates, there are some who would see themselves as guardians of the spirit of last year's Tahrir Square uprising, others who are Islamists, and one or two with roots in the old political system.

In many ways, those latter candidates are the most interesting.

Building a democracy


Amr Moussa was once Hosni Mubarak's foreign minister, although he was eventually sidelined - apparently for becoming too popular - and ended up running the Arab league.

He has experience which many older Egyptians find reassuring, but he is also able to argue that his relationship with the old regime was somewhat semi-detached. Read More...






0 comments:

Post a Comment