Global Voices Online

This week bloggers discussed Abdolkarim's release, the resuls of the the first stage of legislative elections and more.

Abdolkarim

After the release of Abdolkarim. Malek went to meet him personally and he wrote about his meeting (Arabic). Here is a quick translation of a part of the post:

…
He started to recall the events that occurred.

By dawn of the 26th of October his mother woke him up to tell him there is an officer who wants him. Abdolkarim woke up and the officer told him they want him in Amn El-Dawla (State security). He went with them after they asked about his other brothers.

When he reached Amn El-Dawla they covered his eyes so he can not see the investigator.The investigator started to play the well known psychological game. (If you confess we will not torture you. If you didn't talk we will torture you till you speak.) Karim told him that he doesn't have anything to hide.

Investigator asked: Do you know why you are here ?
Karim: Because of the article.
Investigator: Very good what are your goals, you and your brothers, with such an article ?

(The popular conspiracy theory in our Egyptian security, that there is a certain conspiracy to create another unrest between muslims and christians in Moharam Bek. Feuled by the articles written by Abdolkarim, to create a new lack of security in the region for the benefit of external powers.. ((A very hard to describe ironic remark here, can't translate it))

The investigator at this moment didn't know that Karim is secularist and thought that he was shared his brother's fundementalist views. Karim explained that he is a secular muslim etc. etc..

Karim told me that the investigation continued for 5 hours and that he didn't endure any physical torture.

He also told me that he was well fed and that he had meals from restaurants and toilet was good during his stay in Amn El-Dawla.

After wards he went to the Bab Sharq police station with the political detainees jail away from criminal suspects.

From there he called his family and told him about his where abouts. (Strangely, his family didn't mention this.) Later on he was deported to Torah Prison.

He stayed 12 days and told me that food was ok and they themselves did the cooking. There was TV and they had newspapers. He knew that there are people outside trying to get him out from Al-Destour newspaper.

He was released and went to the Amn El-Dawla again. The investigator told him that he doesn't want to see him again and he has to calm down his writings a little. Karim told me that Al-Ghad(tomorrow) party did nothing and they have abandoned him.

…

Others considered his release the only good news for this week.

Abdolkarim didn't write about his release yet. He also removed all his previous posts.

Elections

The first stage of the elections ended. Sandmonkey published the final tally:

NDP…… 114 seats* 70%
MB………. 34 seats 20%
Indies……..8 seats 5%
NFC………..8 seats 5%

Total = 164 seats

NFC is the National Front for Change. They are the main opposition parties.
MB is the Muslim Brotherhood.

The 5%
Ramy points to a comment by Sandmonkey. He assures us that if none of the opposition parties got 5% or more in the parliamentary seats, no one from the opposition will be able to nominate himself as president in 2011. This is due to the ridiculous constitutional amendment.

Mahmoud publishes a mashup of music and several radio, TV and original recordings of voices and reactions to the elections . Mp3 link (Arabic)

From the streets
Alaa posts an account of what he have seen in the first run of the elections, with photos. Earlier Alaa was shouting and screaming that the turnout was very low. Only 10% of the registered voters. And only very few people are registered. At points only 3000 voters were enough to secure a seat in the parliment.

Metamorphosis
Independent candidates after they won the elections turned en masse into NDP candidates. This transformation was resented by many bloggers. Considering it corupt, unethical and dishonest.

Muslim brotherhood
The astonishing large number of seats secured by the brotherhood in the first of three stages made a lot bloggers ask a good number of questions.
Ramy (Arabic) asked the most important ones:

• Was it (the results) a deal or conspiracy with the government ?
• If it was a deal or conspiracy, who is the winner ? who called for this ?
• Was it to frighten the USA to run towards the arms of the NDP instead of Al-Ghad party and the young oppositions?
• Was it a tactic from the government to release its stronghold or a move to calm people down ?
• Why did the governemnt “leave the door open” for the new opposition and “left” Ayman Nour to be that noisy and for Kefaya to protest and throttled the voices of the brotherhood. Now they have turned their policy 180 degrees and left the brotherhood win and managed cut the hands of the opposition ?

Ibn abdel aziz jokingly nominates himself as the head of the Muslim brotherhood. This means that he is the first person to nominate himself to this position from 70 years.

Football
Rarely anyone mentions football but not after the Ahly won their fourth African Champions League title.

Update: Abdolkarim didn't remove his previous posts and he finally wrote about his release.

Update: Egyptian Person translated parts of Abdolkarim's post.

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