November 9th, 2009 by Jason

Mohamed ElBaradei announced he would consider running for president if he had “written” guarantees of a “free and fair election.” However, Article 76 of the Egyptian constitution requires a candidate to receive 250 signatures from both legislative houses and local councils to run for president, a nearly insurmountable task given the ruling party’s dominance in parliament.

Meanwhile,  an Egyptian police officer has been sentenced to five years in prison for torturing a mentally disabled suspect this summer. However, Ayman Nourwarned that in these kinds of cases, “officers are sent to prison for short periods and they are reinstated in their jobs right after their release.” Nour was recently banned by the Egyptian government from traveling to the United States, leading the U.S. to urge Cairo to reconsider its decision.

The Arabist points to an article by Hossam Tammam on the Muslim Brotherhood, in which he avoids the typical moderate versus conservative dichotomy and instead describes a schism between “inward-looking vs. outward-looking” groups. According to Tammam, the current Supreme Guide Mahdi Akef’s attempts to bridge the divide between these groups began to crumble after internal squabbles during the MB’s attempt to formulate a coherent party platform in 2007. As the conservatives gained more influence after the 2008 internal council elections and the arrests of reformist MB leaders, Akef began an active attempt to balance their influence with the failed appointment of Essam El-Erian to the Guidance Bureau. Now, Akef is no longer viewed as a neutral arbitrator between the two camps. Tammam predicts that reformist MBs may grow increasingly disenchanted with the conservative leadership, but “the deeper effect of the crisis will be see in greater organisational and ideological rigidity.”

Finally, the Egyptian NileSat and the Saudi-managed Arabsat satellite companies have stopped broadcasting Iran’s Arabic-speaking news channel, the World. Officially, the broadcasts were stopped because the companies received complaints that the World was airing material against the region’s religious and political values. However, according to Amro Hassan at Babylon and Beyond, some sources believe the cancellation has more to do with the Sunni Arab world’s fear of meddling by Iran in their internal affairs.

Posted in Egypt, Elections, Iran, Islamist movements, Journalism, Middle Eastern Media, Muslim Brotherhood, Saudi Arabia, US foreign policy |