Word: mubarak
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After years of government repression, activists like el-Erian have a lot to cheer about. The final round of balloting gave the Brotherhood, whose candidates ran as independents, 88 seats in the 454-member parliament, making it the main opposition to President Hosni Mubarak's secular, military-backed regime, which has ruled Egypt for 24 years. The result, a sixfold increase over the group's 15 seats in the current national assembly, came despite clashes between Brotherhood supporters and government police who tried to prevent them from voting. The violence left 12 dead and hundreds injured. And the election raised...
...Erian's geniality could make him a future presidential rival of Mubarak's son, Gamal, 42, who has not ruled out a presidential bid in 2011. It also won't hurt the Brotherhood's image with the U.S. As an activist in the 1980s, el-Erian became friendly with Francis Ricciardone, then a young embassy official and currently ambassador to Egypt. So far, the old acquaintances have failed to reunite. Ricciardone suggests the U.S. ban on meetings could be waived for the Brotherhood's M.P.s, telling TIME, "We have always had contact with elected independent members of parliament." Now that...
President Hosni Mubarak's ruling National Democratic Party is still expected to wind up with nearly 80% of the Parliament's 454 seats. But the unprecedented freedom it granted opponents in this election enabled the 77-year-old Brotherhood--whose members run as independents because of a ban on religious parties--to field twice as many candidates as in the last vote five years ago, when 15 members took office. The group did well this year despite voter intimidation, including some poll closings, witnessed by TIME. A U.S. State Department spokesman still praised the vote as "an important step...
...struggle to form a democratic government--with different constituencies competing for political power and votes-- has jolted other authoritarian regimes in the region. And by throwing its weight behind democracy elsewhere, the Bush Administration has helped other freedom movements in the region. In Egypt, for example, President Hosni Mubarak relented and this year allowed the country to hold its first ever multiparty presidential election. But if Iraq ends up in chaos after a U.S. military drawdown, the instability could spread to its neighbors--and snuff out any hopes of freedom flowering elsewhere in the Arab world...
Incumbent Hosni Mubarak campaigned hard against nine opponents in last week's Egyptian election, the first multiparty presidential race in the country's history. Not surprisingly, he won hands down with 88% of the vote. He could rely on the entrenched election machine of his ruling National Democratic Party, as well as the weakness of smaller opposition parties, which learned only in February that he was allowing a contest. But voter apathy as well as cries of foul play undercut Mubarak's effort to portray the election as a showcase for democratic change. Egypt's Independent Committee for Election Monitoring...