Thuggery is the solution

The second stage of Egpytian elections were marked by violence and wide spread irregularities. Officially one died during the first run of the elections and several wounded. But opposition newspapers claimed four died on that day. Few days later another man was killed and 21 were injured in election related clashes. 450 Muslim Brotherhood (MB) activists were detained, most of them were released few days afterwards.

On the day of the first run of the second stage. Mohammed together with Haisam and few others decided to take the risk and go see what was happening in several areas in Alexandria.

In two long posts, Mohamed describes (Arabic) what he has witnessed; swords, knifes, sticks, vote buying, police inaction, thugs intimidating voters, clashes between MB and thugs, broken car windshields. At one point, Haisam was slapped on his back of his nape by one of the thugs. While they were kicked out of a street while publicly cursed and insulted by a coffee shop owner who turned his business into a center for organizing vote buying to the NDP.

Haisam witnessed thugs beating women supporting the MB in front of a voting station. They also hear from other people who witnessed wide spread irregularities including breaking ballot boxes, clashes, people injured and the man who got killed.

Mohammed said he felt it was like war coverage and not election coverage.

Bigpharoh posts several photographs from news wires of clashes and fights. While Egyptian Conscience posts some photos taken by amateurs.

Wa7da Masrya describes her voting experience (Arabic) that day and how she was pressured by MB supporters to vote for them. Yet she refused.

As for the results of this bloody round, we are still waiting for the re-run. However, the MB secured 14 seats. Sandmonkey did the math:

Welcome to the second round of our parliamentarian elections. I am Sandmonkey, and I will be your host for the evening. So far we know that the MB has won 14 seats, which brings their total to 48 seats, and are likely to go into a run-off elections in 4 more, which if they win, will bring their total to 50 seats, 3 X what they had last elections. Once they hit 60 seats it will be really hard to decline them a party, and once they hit 65 seats they will be able to field their own presidential candidate for the next presidential elections. Oh Joy.

As for what happened in the past few weeks here is a summary of the first stage:
The opposition formed a coalition against the NDP, while the Muslim Brotherhood didn't join this front. Both the NDP and the MB campaigns were the most visible. With the MB slogan “Islam is the solution”.

After the first and second run of the first stage of elections the MB won 34 seats (40 after the first run of the second stage). NDP and indpendants who join the NDP secured most of the remaining seats. While the opposition only won 8 seats. With its most prominent leaders losing their seats.

2 comments

  • Venceremos Camaradas ~ I figure your article’s subject line was just sarcastic for thuggery is not the solution, but part of the problem of the ‘street thug’ criminal mentality. This ‘street thug’ mentality mirrors the larger criminal thug mentality of the corrupt corporate ruling class wherein the ends justifies the means no matter how blood or murderous.

    The power brokers will do what they can to rig public elections against the common interests of the people in favor of rich special interests.

    We should all be aware of current events, the policies and positions of political parties and politicians and, if we are eligible, we should all vote and cast our ballots to promote participatory representative democracy.

    Many people here in the United States are apathetic, uninterested and turned off to all politics in general. Thus, this leaves the playing field wide open for corrupt politicians and their thugs. We should all recognize our humane right to vote, take advantage of the power of the vote on Voting Day and remember what Brother Malcolm X stated:

    “There’s new thinking coming in. There’s new strategy coming in. It’ll be Molotov cocktails this month, hand grenades next month, and something else next month. It’ll be ballots, or it’ll be bullets. It’ll be liberty, or it will be death. The only difference about this kind of death — it’ll be reciprocal.”

    URL Link ~
    http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/malcolmxballot.htm

    The people’s vanguard elements must take the lead, keep moving forward and take bold action when the situation calls for it in order to elevate humane consciousness so that the people will take positive community action for their own basic survival interests. It’s The Ballot or the Bullet!

    Harmony In the Family of Humanity!
    Peter S. Lopez {aka Peta}
    Sacramento, California, USA
    Yahoo Email: sacranative{at}yahoo.com
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Humane-Rights-Agenda/
    http://humane-rights-agenda.blogspot.com/
    http://www.digitaldivide.net/profile/sacranative

  • […] The second stage was the most violent. Although one person died in the first run of the third stage there was less violence but the police and security forces prevented many people from entering polling stations. […]

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