Egypt’s Islamist political parties secured nearly three-quarters of the seats in parliament in the country’s first full set of elections since ousting former dictator Hosni Mubarak, according to final results released Saturday.
A coalition led by the Muslim Brotherhood won 47 percent, or 235 seats in the 498-seat parliament. The ultraconservative Al-Nour Party was second with 25 percent, or 125 seats. The liberals who instigated the protest movement that ousted Mubarak failed to organize and connect with Egyptian voters.
The Islamist victories in parliament portend a restrictive and religious-based government which will have to compete with the current military rulers, the Supreme Council of Armed Services (SCAF), who have hinted at maintaining their grip on power despite the elections.
Egypt’s pro-democracy activists have been calling on SCAF to step down, accusing them of impeding the transition to civilian rule. SCAF is accused of killing at least 80 protesters since October, of torturing detainees and of detaining at least 12,000 civilians to be tried before military tribunals.
The Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party is now pushing for a law that would grant immunity to SCAF generals for crimes they have committed since taking power in February, a decision that was announced one day after the Brotherhood met with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns, which some saw as a sign that the U.S. has extended its suppression of Egyptian democracy almost a year past the ouster of their long-time ally Hosni Mubarak.
U.S. money continues to flow to Egypt’s ruling military council and weapons – including riot gear for security forces – have continuously been shipped from American to the Egyptian authorities.
Your article is a bit misleading. Here is an important paragraph from one of your links that completely changes the tone…
I"n a separate interview, Mohammed Beltagy, a leading member of the Freedom and Justice Party who is set to serve in the next parliament, said the matter of immunity must be discussed with the families of slain protesters and would be pursued only if they agree. “This is up to the families of the martyrs to decide,” he said."
Arab spring, Islamist winter.
Once again, Prof. Juan Cole is here to lead us into the light: http://www.juancole.com/2012/01/south-carolina-gi…
Money paragraph:
"To have 51%, the Muslim Brotherhood party needs a coalition with another party. Its leaders have at least said that they prefer to make that alliance with a secular party like the Wafd rather than with the hard line Salafis.
The other big political news is that Newt Gingrich won the Republican primary in South Carolina. I have noticed a big difference in the coverage of these two events in the US press. American journalists noted that 60-65% of Republican voters in South Carolina are evangelicals. But they did not then add reaction to this statistic. They did not then immediately quote pro-choice women or secularists as saying that they were afraid South Carolina’s church-goers have a dispropotionate influence on US politics (South Carolina’s population is only 4 million.). In contrast, US journalists who reported an MB win immediately added that women and secularists were worried about it.
Then, you don’t see much in the US press as to why Egyptians voted as they did."
What happens now? I don't think people will be any better off, but it is not our business (or it shouldn't be).