(New York Post) Amir Taheri - In the first round of Egypt's presidential election, almost half of those eligible didn't vote. This contrasts with decades of fixed elections in which 99.99% of the electorate were reported as having voted. Millions of felaheen (poor peasants) were relieved not to be rounded up and marched to polling stations to cast their ballots for the ruling party's candidate. The two candidates of the establishment that has dominated Egypt since its independence in the 1920s - the military elite and the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood - together drew less than half of the vote. Taking into account those who didn't vote, the two men represent around a quarter of the electorate, despite immense resources at their disposal - the machinery of administration for Shafiq and a tsunami of Arab oil money for Mursi.
2012-06-01 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive