Egypt: MB Claims Electoral Lead; Results Delayed

As Egyptians flocked to the polls on Tuesday, the Freedom and Justice Party, the Muslim Brotherhood’s affiliate, claimed the lead in the first stage of parliamentary elections. State television reported that the peaceful polls had a high voter turnout, and Essam el-Erian, leader of the Freedom and Justice Party, said “Millions of Egyptians voted because they wanted a strong, democratic Parliament.” However, the results of the first round of elections will be announced Thursday, a day later than planned, as the a High Elections Commission member stated “there is some delay as we have not been able to finish counting in some areas, including Cairo.” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton congratulated Egypt “for a peaceful, successful start to their election process,” and stressed the importance of “Egypt’s transition to democracy continuing in a just, transparent and inclusive manner.”

An analysis by Mohamed El Dahshan in Foreign Policy Magazine argues that despite the ruling general’s claim that the ballot has been a success, “Egypt’s elections weren’t supposed to be this way.” He adds, “These elections weren’t supposed to occur as we suffer under the military boot,” and “shouldn’t take place with widespread violence and human rights violations.” Dahshan suggests, “These were not the elections we dreamed of, or for which we fought, bled, and lost hundreds of noble souls for.”

The Project on Middle East Political Science released a report on the election season in the Arab world, stating that the case for elections in Egypt is strong, as “the only way to have a transition to democracy is to start making a transition to democracy,” although the elections would ” take place in the absence of a constitution, leaving the powers and role of the new elected body unclear.” Eric Trager, of The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, noted that  Egypt’s “second revolution has failed because, since a ceasefire went into effect on November 24, it has been remarkably contained” as the military learned a major lesson from the first revolution: “the first step to ending a revolt is preventing it from disrupting the lives of ordinary people.”