It wasn’t exactly a surprise anymore, since preliminary counts have been floating around for days, but Egypt’s junta formally kicked off the presidential runoff today by confirming that the two candidates will be Muslim Brotherhood official Dr. Mohamed Mursi and Air Marshal Ahmed Shafiq, who referred to dictator Hosni Mubarak as his “role model.”
Shafiq’s placing in the top two shocked many, and his status as an unapologetic Mubarak backer has aroused considerable anger, with protesters storming his campaign’s headquarters today, ransacking it and setting it on fire.
The runoff campaign is likely to see more violence as the two sides look to court the liberal revolutionaries, and those voters face an unappetizing choice between a religious conservative and a new Mubarak.
The experts see Mursi with a considerable advantage, because whatever negative connotations the Muslim Brotherhood may have among secular voters, he wasn’t a regime loyalist. Still, there seems to be palpable fear that Shafiq is the junta’s preferred choice, and that in some way or other he will eventually be installed.
Egypt — Democratic dictatorship by and for the 51% most wealthy
Impoverished lower half of Egyptian society does not vote, so this election is all about how to divide up the wealth and the slave labor.
For both candidates are of the rich ruling class, the 25% most wealthy, and there would not be the slightest difference between the two as to how they would rule. Both would keep minimum wage at $2 a day, both would enforce the peace treaty with Israel and life in Egypt would be just as if Mubarak was still in power.
Implying that am minimum wage of $2 is inappropriate or somehow unfair.
It's a minimum wage, not a maximum wage.
The poor Egyptians have been bamboozled and had.
If the name of Air Marshal, Ahmed Shafiq, who is the favorite of the west, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and the anti-revolution club, aka GCC, comes out of the ballot box as the next president of Egypt, you can bet your bottom dollar the that Egyptians would swarm the Tahrir Square again.
The Egyptians made a fatal mistake: they left the military intact instead of hanging the good-for-nothing generals from Cairo light posts. This time around they know better.